Most Star Wars Zero Company devs furloughed before launch, lawsuit reveals

Most of the developers behind Star Wars Zero Company were furloughed without pay weeks before the game launched, a dispute first surfaced by Stephen Totilo on Bluesky and detailed in his Game File newsletter. A Bit Reactor spokesperson confirmed to Game File that "many" staff were furloughed, saying the move was unrelated to publisher EA or Disney, which owns the Star Wars IP.

Sources cited by Game File put the furloughs at roughly 80 percent of staff, with only a skeleton crew left on active payroll to fix bugs. The studio ran out of funds just short of release. An August update to a 2024 lawsuit between the studio's co-founders, which puts Bit Reactor's ownership into question, states that "most" staff were impacted.

Senior technical artist Zachariah Scott posted on LinkedIn that Bit Reactor was "seemingly concealing" the furloughs, and told Game File that nearly a dozen staff he spoke with had been furloughed. The studio says it hopes to secure funds to restore pay; some staff are skeptical it will happen. The exact scope of the furloughs has not been confirmed by Bit Reactor, which declined to comment on precise numbers.