Star Wars: Zero Company arrived last week to strong reviews and a spot near the top of Steam's sales charts. Behind the scenes, though, the studio that built it was hollowed out. According to a Game File report cited by multiple outlets, Bit Reactor furloughed most of its development team just weeks before the game launched.
What the report says
Game File reports that Bit Reactor ran low on money in the run-up to release and put a large share of its staff on furlough. One source told the outlet that around 80% of the team was affected. The furloughed workers technically remain Bit Reactor employees, but they are not currently drawing salaries. A smaller group stayed on the payroll to handle post-launch bug fixing.
A Bit Reactor spokesperson told Game File that the furlough decision was made solely by the studio and was not an order from publisher EA. The spokesperson said Bit Reactor hopes to bring the furloughed staff back onto the payroll at some point, and suggested that how well Zero Company performs commercially could influence whether that happens.
Accusations and a lawsuit
Zachariah Scott, a former technical artist who says he was fired by Bit Reactor under acrimonious circumstances in May, accused the company of "concealing" the furloughs in a LinkedIn post. He later told Game File that furloughed staff he had spoken with were not confident everyone would return to their previous roles even if the studio is able to rehire some of them.
The furlough news surfaced through an ongoing legal fight between Bit Reactor co-founders Greg Foertsch and Alison Kelly. Kelly has filed a lawsuit against Foertsch that, per the reporting, largely centers on who owns the studio. The case is set to go to trial in early 2027, with both sides currently trading claims and denials.
A rough backdrop for a well-received game
The timing is stark because Zero Company has landed as one of the more warmly received Star Wars games in years. It leans on XCOM-style tactical combat set during the Clone Wars, following a mercenary squad led by a hardnosed captain named Hawks who takes jobs to pay off debt.
Polygon called it one of its favorite games of 2026, praising how it swaps grand Jedi heroics for a grounded story about a struggling crew trying to keep its operation afloat, comparing the vibe to Cowboy Bebop and Andor. Over at Kotaku, Zack Zwiezen wrote that he "really, really" likes the game's tactics and relationship management, even as he took a lengthy detour to complain about the ubiquity of the Muppet-faced Ovissian aliens. Kotaku also noted that EA only sent review code the day before launch.
Those two threads sit uncomfortably together: a debut project earning goodwill from critics while the people who made it wait to learn whether they will be paid again or brought back at all. The Bit Reactor spokesperson's framing, that a successful launch might help restore jobs, puts the team's fate partly in the hands of players who buy the game.
What it means for players
If you are picking up Star Wars: Zero Company, the launch-window support you get is coming from a skeleton crew rather than the full studio, which is worth keeping in mind when weighing how quickly bugs and balance issues get addressed. Longer term, the ownership lawsuit heading to trial in 2027 leaves any follow-up content or sequel plans uncertain. For now, the game is out and reviewing well, but the studio behind it is in a precarious spot, and the situation is worth watching if you care about who actually made the tactics game you are playing.