Around 80% of Star Wars Zero Company studio Bit Reactor was reportedly furloughed weeks before its release
Staff don’t know if they’ll all get their jobs back again, it’s claimed
The majority of staff at Star Wars Zero Company studio Bit Reactor were reportedly furloughed weeks before the game’s release.
Star Wars Zero Company was released last week to widespread critical acclaim, with a Metacritic score currently sitting at 85.
By the time the game had launched, however, most of its developers had reportedly been sidelined without pay as the studio started running out of money.
According to a source speaking to Game File, around 80% of the team has been furloughed, meaning they retain their employee status but have been removed from the company’s active payroll.
Another source told the publication that only a skeleton staff currently remains at Bit Reactor, ready to respond to bug reports following the game’s release on August 27.
A representative from Bit Reactor confirmed to the publication that it had furloughed many of its workers before the game’s release, but didn’t specify how many staff had been affected.
They also stated that it had been a difficult decision to make, that it had been made before it was known how the game’s release would go, and that it was solely Bit Reactor’s decision (and therefore nothing to do with Star Wars IP owner Disney or the game’s publisher EA).
“A gross but all too common sight to see”, says former Bit Reactor dev
Former Bit Reactor employee Zachariah Scott, who was a cinematic storytelling artist at the studio for three years before saying he was fired from the studio in May 2026, made reference to the furlough on his LinkedIn page.
“It is sick and weird to have all of these EA and Disney folks as well as Bit Reactor senior staff making all of these 10/10 posts about Star Wars : Zero Company being such a huge success and praising the work of the team while seemingly concealing the fact that the team was furloughed weeks ago,” he wrote.
“It is a gross but all too common sight to see, another corporate game hitting the top of Steam while the team is left looking for work and cut off from any possible profit sharing. It would be such a different story if they had been upfront about it earlier, and now it feels like they’re trying to keep the team in a holding pattern with good vibes and more empty promises.”
Scott told Game File that he had spoken to nearly a dozen Bit Reactor staff over the weekend, most of whom confirmed they had been furloughed three weeks ago, and that they weren’t confident they would all get their jobs back again even if at least some employees returned from furlough.
VGC’s Star Wars Zero Company review calls it an “exceptional strategic adventure which shows what Star Wars is capable of”.
“The biggest achievement of Star Wars Zero Company is how much it made me care about a universe that has grown achingly dull and predictable in recent years,” we wrote. “It rarely innovates with its combat or characters, but it doesn’t have to when they’re both this well executed.”
