Hyper Light Breaker – Heart Machine’s fully 3D rogue-lite spin on its acclaimed 2016 action-adventure Hyper Light Drifter – has had its early access launch bumped back a bit, and is now targeting an early 2025 release.
In a post shared on Steam, Heart Machine founder Alx Preston said the team needs a bit more time to ensure the gameplay experience is up to the “polished” standard the studio is aiming for.
“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,” Preston wrote.
The developer said the studio also wanted to ensure the wellbeing of its staff, with their mental and physical health a priority. This delay, Preston said, will “enable the team to offer better, more responsive support to community feedback during the Early Access period itself”, rather than seeing them burnt out having pushed for that earlier launch.
“Trust that we REALLY want to put Breaker out there, and see people engage with a game that we’ve all worked so hard on,” Preston assured the community. “However, we also REALLY need to make sure that the core foundational units of the game are as strong as they can be, so that we can build on them during the Early Access period.”
Hyper Light Breaker was first announced back in March 2022, with an expected launch into early access the following spring. Its release then shifted to autumn 2023 before it was pushed back to 2024. As with this latest delay, Heart Machine said it wanted to make sure it could “bring the game to its full potential” ahead of its debut.
In the meantime while waiting for Hyper Light Breaker, you can give Hyper Light Drifter a whirl if you are yet to do so. “Heart Machine’s slash-’em-up is punishing and precise – and incredibly beautiful,” reads Eurogamer’s Hyper Light Drifter review from 2016.