Heart Machine lays off more staff for the second time this month, two weeks before launch

Los Angeles-based studio Heart Machine has once again initiated a round of layoffs, thought to be the second this month alone.

As spotted by Game Developer, while the studio itself has not announced the cuts, a number of developers have taken to social media to share news of their redundancies, just 12 days before the launch of its Devolver Digital-published game, Possessor(s).

At least four developers have shared that they’ve been let go, with one senior 3D animator stating, “my time at Heart Machine has sadly come to a rather abrupt end. I was there for almost six years.”

“Heart Machine has just laid off a bunch more people, effective immediately,” said Yiyi, who worked in Heart Machine’s community and PR team. “By the time Possessor(s) comes out on November 11, I don’t know if anyone who worked on the game will even be at the company anymore. That’s game dev.”

In November 2024, Heart Machine laid off a “portion” of its team as it was developing Hyper Light Breaker. Then, on October 10, Heart Machine announced another unspecified amount of job cuts, saying it had it parted ways “with a number of talented team members” as it winds down development on its early access title Hyper Light Breaker.

It’s thought at least 4400 developers have lost their jobs in 2025, although as many companies refuse to disclose how many people have been impacted, the actual number is likely to be considerably higher. That’s on top of almost 15,000 redundancies in 2024, and 10,500 layoffs in 2023.