Star Wars Zero Company Studio Bit Reactor Reportedly Furloughed Most of Its Staff Ahead of Launch

Bit Reactor, the Maryland-based studio behind Star Wars Zero Company, reportedly placed most of its employees on unpaid furlough weeks before the game's August 27 launch, according to a report published today by Game File and corroborated by Polygon, Kotaku, PC Gamer, Aftermath, Metro UK and Inven Global.

A representative for Bit Reactor confirmed the furloughs to Game File but did not disclose how many staff were affected. Sources told the outlet that as much as 80% of the studio's workforce had been stood down roughly two to three weeks before launch, leaving only a skeleton crew to handle post-launch bug fixes. Bit Reactor stressed that the decision was the studio's alone and was not imposed by publisher Electronic Arts or Star Wars license holder Lucasfilm.

"We ran out of most of our money just ahead of the launch of our first game," a Bit Reactor representative told Game File, describing the move as a difficult decision taken before it was clear how the launch would perform. The representative added that the studio hopes to bring furloughed staff back with full pay if Star Wars Zero Company's early commercial performance justifies it.

The news first surfaced on Sunday when former Bit Reactor senior technical artist Zachariah Scott posted on LinkedIn that the studio had been "concealing the fact that the team was furloughed weeks ago" while senior staff and EA and Disney partners were celebrating the game's launch on social media. "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," Scott wrote.

According to court filings dated August 12 and obtained by Game File, "most" of Bit Reactor's employees had already been furloughed and contractors terminated by mid-August. The filings are part of an ongoing lawsuit between Bit Reactor co-founders Greg Foertsch, the game's creative director and current CEO, and Alison Kelly, the studio's former chief operating officer. Kelly has alleged that Foertsch pushed her out and is seeking more than $20 million in damages over her disputed ownership stake. Foertsch has denied the allegations and countersued. The trial has been postponed to 2027.

The timing makes the report unusual: Star Wars Zero Company launched on August 27 to the highest Metacritic score of any Star Wars game at launch since 2004's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II — The Sith Lords, and has sat near the top of the Steam global sales charts since release. Despite that, Bit Reactor's financial runway had reportedly run dry before the title shipped, forcing the studio into the furlough.

Bit Reactor's representative told Game File that the studio's hope is to bring furloughed workers back once Zero Company's sales momentum confirms the launch has been a commercial success, but Scott told the outlet that current and former staff he has spoken with are not confident that everyone who was stood down will be rehired at full pay. The studio has not publicly disclosed an exact headcount of affected employees.

Neither Electronic Arts nor Lucasfilm Games has issued a public statement on the furloughs as of writing. EA's official launch press release for Star Wars Zero Company, published today on the EA newsroom, makes no reference to the studio's financial situation.

Star Wars Zero Company is the debut title from Bit Reactor, founded in 2021 by former Firaxis and Respawn developers including Foertsch, who previously served as art director on XCOM 2. It launched on PC via EA app, Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

For background on the official launch announcement, see the EA newsroom post: https://www.ea.com/news/star-wars-zero-company-now-available