A new report has revealed that most of the Star Wars Zero Company development team at Bit Reactor was furloughed before the game launched on August 28.
While the new XCOM-like Star Wars strategy game garnered positive reviews, Bit Reactor confirmed to Game File that the studio had furloughed workers in August, with a separate source suggesting that around 80% of the Zero Company’s development team was impacted by this. Sources also revealed the game was developed on a very tight $50 million budget, which appeared to run out just before release and meant developers couldn’t even do things like add more lightsaber animations into the game.
Furloughs differ from layoffs. That means the impacted Zero Company developers are unpaid right now, with the hopes of bringing them back on and paying them again in the future, rather than being completely let go by Bit Reactor. The path forward for the studio isn’t a simple one, though, as the Game File report also uncovered that co-founders Greg Foertsch and Alison Kelly are currently embroiled in a lawsuit.
Documents for that lawsuit reveal that Zero Company started life as an Apex Legends game pitch, but Respawn ultimately asked them to make it a Star Wars game. While Bit Reactor went to work on Zero Company in 2021, by 2024, Kelly claims she was being excluded from meetings and locked out of tools she needed to do her job as COO.
Kelly also claims Foertsch “denied her access to books, awarded himself financial benefits, and wrongly terminated her employment.” By the time Zero Company launched last month, it appears Bit Reactor ran out of money had furloughed workers as a result.
That trial is scheduled to begin sometime early next year, but it is unclear if Bit Reactor will be able to financially recover and start paying its developers again. Regardless, this a disappointing turn of events happeneing at a time when the developers and players should be celebrating Star Wars Zero Company’s launch.
