The studio behind Star Wars Zero Company furloughed up to 80 percent of its staff in the lead up to the RPG’s launch, a Game File report reveals. That means affected staff are technically still employed by the company, but will receive no wage during the furlough period.
A representative from Bit Reactor confirmed the furloughs to Game File, though didn’t indicate how many employees are affected. The rep said uncertainty around the game’s launch performance was to blame for the furloughs, and that they were Bit Reactor’s decision and not EA or Disney’s.
Other sources claim up to 80% of the studio has been impacted. According to the Bit Reactor rep, it is hoped that furloughed workers will be brought back with full pay.
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A former Bit Reactor staffer, Zachariah Scott, who was let go by the studio earlier this year, addressed the furloughs on LinkedIn yesterday. “It is sick and weird to have all of these EA and Disney folks as well as Bitreactor 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,” Scott wrote.
He went on: “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.”
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Star Wars Zero Company was released on August 28 to near unanimous critical praise, with Ted Litchfield calling it “a new all-timer Star Wars game and a stunning debut for Bit Reactor”. The tactical RPG is currently the top selling game on Steam right now, and that’s only a third of the story: the game released for PS5 and Xbox consoles too.
It paints a pretty bleak picture of where the industry is at present: even a studio that has just shipped a critically acclaimed, well-selling Star Wars game published by EA is showing severe symptoms of decline in the days after launch.