Star Wars Zero Company Dev Bit Reactor Employees Furloughed Ahead of Launch - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 1 day ago / 1,644 Views
Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor furloughed most of its employees weeks before the game launched on August 27, according to a report from Game File.
A representative for Bit Reactor has confirmed employees were furloughed and it was a difficult decision that was made before it was known how the launch would go. The call was made by the studio and not by publisher Electronic Arts or the Star Wars license holder Disney.
A filing in a lawsuit by studio co-founder Alison Kelly in 2024 was added on August 12 of this year that states the studio had "furloughed most of its employees and terminated contractors."
One source claims 80 percent of staff were impacted by the furlough, while another source says only a skeleton crew is left on the active payroll in order to address post-launch bugs.
Senior technical artist Zachariah Scott, who left in May, claims the studio was "concealing the fact that the team was Furloughed weeks ago."
He spoke with nearly a dozen employees over the weekend and said "everybody has essentially the same story, which is, 'Yeah, I got furloughed three weeks ago.'"
Bit Reactor, which was founded in 2021, had run out of money just ahead of launch.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Hmm… well I may just wait for a discount. Was interested, but if that’s how EA wants to play, then I’ve got lots of other games to tackle.
"The call was made by the studio and not by publisher Electronic Arts."
And not buying the game isn't going to help the developers lol, they need money.
"Bit Reactor, which was founded in 2021, had run out of money just ahead of launch."
ah my bad. Well I guess if that’s how Bit Reactor wants to play, then I’ll hold off. Buying the game or not won’t help the developers regardless. It’s clear studio management won’t be holding onto the talent regardless of whether it sells.
So at least 80% of the studio straight up no longer received work at that point. Which is the furlough. Doesn’t seem like they were confident work was going to resume for them after.
furloughed never heared of that word,so they got shoved to the side.
Hi my fellow employers who hopefully created a great and succesfull game thanks a lot for your hard work,now F off
Furloughs are either temporary or a way to cut staff without having to pay severance (people eventually get tired of not getting paid or being left in limbo). A lot of people were furloughed during covid. If they really did run out of money they might be waiting for bonuses written into their contract with EA or getting funding for another game by another publisher.
