Star Wars Zero Company has been one of the success stories of the year, but the team that made it is shrinking again. Bit Reactor, the studio behind the turn-based tactics game, has reportedly let go of an unknown number of developers, barely a month after it began recalling staff it had furloughed ahead of launch.
Word came from the developers themselves. Several Bit Reactor employees said in LinkedIn posts on Friday 6 November that they had lost their jobs, a story first picked up by the Star Wars site Bespin Bulletin. The studio has not announced the cuts or said how many people are affected.
Who has been hit
According to Eurogamer, those who have spoken out include a senior environment artist who had been on the project for three and a half years, from pre-production right through to release, as well as a UI engineer who built much of the interface for the tactical missions and a member of the QA team. “While it stings, I’m really proud of what we built together,” the artist wrote.
That artist later updated his post to clarify that he had been among the staff still on furlough, rather than one of those who had already returned. Bespin Bulletin reads that as a sign the developers brought back last month have not been affected so far, although Bit Reactor has not confirmed who was included.
From furlough to a million sales
The layoffs follow a strange few months for the studio. In the weeks before Zero Company arrived on 27 August, Bit Reactor furloughed most of its workforce, with one report putting the share at around 80 percent, after reportedly running short of money just before release. Reviews were strong regardless, and the game is believed to have passed a million sales within its first month.
On 7 October the studio shared a message from CEO Greg Foertsch on its official Bluesky account, saying it had “started the process of returning more of our team back to work”. He described the earlier furlough as “an incredibly difficult decision” but one that was “necessary to help us eventually bring as many people back as possible”. More than half of the team is thought to have gone back, though not all on full pay.
Since then the studio has kept up a steady stream of positive news. Patch 1.2 went live on 23 October with new difficulty options, and the game picked up two Golden Joystick Award nominations, including PC Game of the Year.
What it means for Zero Company
None of that appears to have been enough to bring everyone back. Bit Reactor has said nothing publicly about the job losses, and nothing has been shared about how they affect future updates for the game, which is published by Electronic Arts. EA’s own studio decisions have been under fire lately, from the Canadian petition to save BioWare to the Save Mass Effect graffiti outside its Madrid office.
For a game that critics and players have widely praised, it is a bleak follow up. If Bit Reactor comments on the size of the cuts or its plans for Zero Company, we will update this story.
