Star Wars Zero Company Developer Bit Reactor Lays Off Staff

Bit Reactor, the studio behind Star Wars Zero Company, has laid off staff. The studio has not said how many people were affected. Several developers announced their dismissals on LinkedIn on Friday, 6 November, and Bespin Bulletin first reported the cuts.

Among those named is Ryan Lopez, a senior environment artist who helped build the game's physical spaces. He worked on the game for three and a half years, from pre-production, the early planning stage, through to launch. He was laid off after a three-month furlough, a period of leave in which staff stay on the payroll but are not working.

Other departures named in the posts include Tyler Eichten, a UI engineer who worked on much of the on-screen interface for the game's tactical missions, and Ryan Mosher, a member of the QA, or quality assurance, team. QA staff test games and hunt for bugs.

The layoffs follow a long period of leave. Bit Reactor furloughed most of its staff in the weeks before Star Wars Zero Company launched on 27 August. A studio spokesperson confirmed to Game File that "many" staff had been furloughed, and the studio also ended some contractor work. One estimate put the share of staff furloughed before launch at roughly 80 percent, leaving a skeleton crew, or small core team, to deal with bugs after release.

The game is thought to have sold more than one million copies within a month of launch. The studio's website lists it for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Bit Reactor began bringing people back in the autumn. On 7 October, CEO Greg Foertsch said the studio had started the process of returning more of its team to work. It is thought that more than half of the studio returned, though not everyone came back on full pay, according to Game Developer.

Bit Reactor was unveiled in January 2022 by Greg Foertsch, a former art director at Firaxis, the studio known for the Civilization strategy games. The studio's public statements on the layoffs have been limited so far, and the number of people affected remains unannounced.

For readers following the game, the core facts are simple. Staff who made Star Wars Zero Company were furloughed before launch, and some have now lost their jobs. The full scale of the cuts has not been confirmed by the studio.

The original reporting on the layoffs is available from Eurogamer.