Another Sweet Baby Inc. Failure: 'Hyper Light Breaker' Developer Lays Off Staff Ahead Of Game's Early Access Release
Heart Machine, the developer behind the upcoming Hyper Light Breaker, which was worked on by Sweet Baby Inc., announced it is already laying off staff before the game releases to early access on Steam.
A report from James Batchelor at Games Industry revealed the company “dismissed a ‘portion’ of its workforce, although its unclear which departments this has affected.”
The company’s Community Manager Yiyi Zhang claimed that the layoffs will not affect Hyper Light Breaker’s release.
Zhang even appeared to imply that laid off employees might be able to rejoin the company depending on the game’s success, “In fact, a strong and and timely launch will rekindle opportunities for those affected as we look to evolve and grow the game throughout Early Access.”
READ: Reflector Entertainment Begins Mass Layoffs After 'Unknown 9: Awakening' Utterly Fails
Hyper Light Breaker was one of the games that Embracer Group retained after it sold off Gearbox to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. back at the end of March.
The game had also been added to the Sweet Baby Inc. detected Steam curator group given Sweet Baby Inc. revealed it had worked on the game in regards to world building, story, story structure, and character development.
Hyper Light Breaker is expected to go into Early Access on Steam some time in 2025. Alx Preston the Founder and Creative Director at Heart Machine shared in a post to Steam in August, “After much evaluation and many conversations with our publisher Arc Games, we’ve decided that we need just a little more time to get the gameplay experience polished to our standards. Therefore, we’re now looking at an Early Access launch date of very early next year.”
Preston added, “We don’t want to ship a project, even in Early Access, that we’re not satisfied with on a number of fronts. Especially in the current state of the industry, we need to put as good a foot forward as we can.”
The game is likely dead on arrival as nearly all of the games that Sweet Baby Inc. has worked on throughout 2024.
That list includes Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, Unknown 9: Awakening, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
What do you make of Heart Machine already laying off employees before Hyper Light Breaker releases to Early Access? Become a paid member to leave a comment and let us know.
NEXT: 'Planet Coaster 2' Uses "Shape 1" And "Shape 2" Instead Of Male And Female In Character Creator