Star Wars: Zero Company launched to rave reviews — then its studio furloughed 80% of staff
Star Wars: Zero Company shipped on August 27 to the best reviews a Star Wars game has earned in 22 years — an 86 on Metacritic — and debuted at the top of Steam's sales charts. The studio behind it, Bit Reactor, was nearly broke before the game even launched. Weeks before release, management furloughed roughly 80% of staff after the company ran out of cash.
The story was broken by Game File / Totilo, who reported that EA and Lucasfilm Games did not order the cuts. Both companies fulfilled their publishing obligations; the furlough decision was Bit Reactor's own. A skeleton crew was kept on to handle post-launch bug fixes. Studio management said it hopes strong sales will allow it to bring people back, but furloughed staff are reportedly skeptical.
The lawsuit
The financial crisis isn't Bit Reactor's only problem. Co-founder Alison Kelly sued CEO Greg Foertsch in July 2024, alleging breach of contract and claiming she was forced out of her role as chief operating officer. Kelly is seeking $20 million in damages. Foertsch filed counter-claims. A trial was originally scheduled for June 2026 but has been postponed to early 2027.
The bigger picture
Bit Reactor was founded by veterans of Firaxis Games and Respawn Entertainment, the studios behind XCOM and Apex Legends. Zero Company is a turn-based tactics game — the kind of niche that rarely dominates sales charts. Getting there with a debut title, under a major IP, while quietly running out of runway is an unusually stark illustration of how externally financed studios work: they carry the cash-flow risk that publishers avoid.
As Tech Insider notes, the question now is whether Zero Company's commercial performance translates quickly enough into payments that can stabilize the studio — and whether the pending $20 million lawsuit complicates any attempt to rehire the furloughed team before the 2027 trial date. For now, the people who made one of the year's most praised games are waiting to find out if they still have jobs.
