Hyper Light Breaker

Um, I didn't play Solar Ash, uh, but it looked really cool.

Um, Hyper Light Breaker is still in early access, like, on PC right now.

Like, it, it...

What, what really bums me out about this one is that it's like, you know, these are...

Solar Ash was very good, but it wasn't the same sort of thing.

Hyper Light Breaker was unfortunately like a pretty big... failure like it you know came out in early access and everyone was like this is not good and also it already feels like it's kind of beyond fixing like it's like the problems with it felt so fundamental at the time um and that yeah turned out to be true um there was possessors which apparently was okay that was like the metroidvania that was published by devolver um but it felt like that kind of snuck out like there was no no sort of big fanfare reviews were like yeah you know it was it was all sort of sevens and eights as far as i remember um so yeah so it's it's just kind of sad like i would have just loved to see them do hyperlight drifter 2 but obviously i guess they felt for whatever reason they could or shouldn't um do that so yeah it's incredibly sad

And also, like, yeah, for them, it seems that it was because a publisher, like, pulled out funding as well for them.

Right, okay.

Again, it's another game that's passed me by there.

And they just released, I think the sequel just about to release, or it's in early access, Hyper Light Breaker, which is the sequel to, you'd assume with a name like that, is the sequel to.

I think whilst the cult following, they didn't quite land.

So it's not completely over yet, but it's still not great news for the industry when we... lose these studios that are you know look build a rocket boy had momentum at the start fell between the cracks and just never got themselves back up with that poor release but someone who's been around developing games since 2016 it feels a shame that you've got a bit of prestige there and um Yeah, not making it through.

So you talk about like a different sequels or I guess like a inspired by different graphics and different, you know, aesthetics.

It reminds me of Hyper Light Drifter and Hyper Light Breaker.

I loved Hyper Light Drifter.

Breaker just didn't do it for me.

that's fair.

And then Hyper Light Breaker came out in early access, and then they actually ended development less than a year later.

And that game was not good.

I did play a fair amount of that, and I did not think that was good.

Anyway, I asked them point blank, why do you need to release Diablo 5 when Diablo 4 is right there and still feels like it has plenty of life left in it? Well, firstly, they clarified that support for Diablo 4 will continue with a Switch 2 port on the way and the Amazon class launching next year.

Beyond that, they said, "...the types of changes that we want to make to the structure of the game really have to be done in a sequel in order to achieve our ambition that we have for telling the story of Diablo and his return to Sanctuary.

Things like the procedural world are just not doable in the context of Diablo 4, along with some of the other innovations that we'll be talking about as we get a little bit closer." Other reporting confirmed that Blizzard does not plan to release any more major expansions for Diablo 4, indicating that the bulk of the Diablo 4 team has already moved over to support Diablo 5, which is slated to launch in 2029.

The Diablo community doesn't love this to be honest, since many of them are quite enjoying Diablo 4, and they're disappointed to learn that it's kind of the end of the road for it here, despite what Blizzard might say.

Preston went on to detail that the affected staff would be given as much help as possible by the studio to help find new jobs.

This is not the first time that Heart Machine has suffered cuts.

In October of 2025, a number of layoffs occurred in conjunction with the team ending development on their Hyper Light Drifter sequel, Hyper Light Breaker.

This actually led to the team forming a union earlier this year.

I am not shocked by any of this.

If you've sort of un- paid attention to, uh, Heart Machine the last couple of years, um, a little wi- a little ways back they put out a game called Hyper Light Breaker, which was an open world roguelike, um, kind of a pseudo sequel in the same world as, as Hyper Light Drifter.

It switched to...

Or it came out in early access, switched publishers.

So I'm not shocked that the studio has run into problems, uh, and may not, uh, be long.

But they, they seem to...

Solar Ash felt like a nice extension of Hyper Light Drifter, but after that, the studio seemed to have trouble pivoting, and really seems like it buckled under the pressure to create Hyper Light Breaker.

And once that didn't work, it felt like the whole sorta thing fell apart, which is, which is sad.

Heart Machine's debut game, Hyper Light Drifter, launched to critical and commercial success in 2016.

The studio's follow-up, Solar Ash, didn't quite meet the same acclaim when it arrived in 2022, and Heart Machine ran into trouble a few years later, ending development of Hyper Light Breaker while it was still in early access and laying off employees.

Released just after those layoffs were imposed, the action platformer Possessors earned mostly positive reviews on Steam, but not very many of them.

It's not clear what comes next for Heart Machine.

I played Solar Ash.

I like Solar Ash.

He loves Solar Ash, right? Like, he was there for Hyper Light Breaker.

He was there, he played Possessors, and he gave his review of Possessors.