Hyper Light Drifter studio workers form union after rounds of layoffs

Workers at Heart Machine, the independent studio behind Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash, have with Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9003. The wall-to-wall unit covers all at the studio, which the union in February after a supermajority of eligible workers voted for the measure.

The organizing effort follows a rough stretch at Heart Machine, after the studio employees in November 2024, then announced in October 2025 that it would on its early access title Hyper Light Breaker and cut further staff.

“I decided to get involved in organizing my studio because I’ve seen so many peers in the industry stand up to protect the craft we all care so deeply about. Watching that momentum grow made me realize that if we love this work, we have to protect it, especially now,” said Steph Aligbe, a gameplay tools engineer at the studio.

Heart Machine joining the CWA extends the union’s gaming footprint even further. The union counts at Microsoft subsidiaries among its members, as well as , and others. CWA also runs the , a direct-join union that launched in 2025, allowing individual game workers in the US and Canada to sign up on their own without elections or employer consent. Large gaming studios like Ubisoft have been undergoing a string of , and workers are increasingly demanding to have .