‘Most’ of Star Wars Zero Company studio Bit Reactor was furloughed ahead of launch - Game File | Stephen Totilo
But for many developers on the game, launch has been bittersweet. A rep for Bit Reactor confirmed to Game File today that the studio had furloughed many of its workers prior to the game’s release. The issue is that Bit Reactor, a studio formed in 2021, had run out of most of its money just ahead of the launch of its first game.
Last week was meant to be a moment of triumph for Bit Reactor, the Maryland-based game studio founded in 2021 with ambitions to create a great new tactical combat game.
On Thursday, August 27, Bit Reactor’s debut title, Star Wars Zero Company, released to stellar reviews. And, from the Gamescom show in Cologne, Germany, studio co-founder Greg Foertsch was giving interviews discussing what the studio’s next game may be.
But for many developers on the game, launch has been bittersweet. Fans love it. Critics prefer it to most recent Star Wars games. Zero Company, which is out for PS5, Xbox Series consoles and PC, is the top-selling game on Steam.
Much of the team that made it, however, is currently going without pay. They were furloughed, just weeks ahead of the game’s launch.
A rep for Bit Reactor confirmed to Game File today that the studio had furloughed many of its workers prior to the game’s release. They said it was a difficult decision and one that had been made before it was clear how launch would go. The rep emphasized that the call to do this was Bit Reactor’s alone (meaning not from publisher EA nor Star Wars license holder Disney).
While the rep declined to comment on the scale of the furloughs, a previously unreported lawsuit brought by studio co-founder Alison Kelly in 2024 noted in a filing from August 12 of this year that Bit Reactor “has furloughed most of its employees and terminated contractors…”
One source told Game File the furloughs impacted 80% of the team; another referred to there only being a skeleton crew left on Bit Reactor’s active payroll, ready to address any of Zero Company’s post-launch bugs.
The issue is that Bit Reactor, a studio formed in 2021, had run out of most of its money just ahead of the launch of its first game.
Over the weekend, Zachariah Scott, a senior technical artist who worked at Bit Reactor from early 2023 until an acrimonious exit this past May, said on LinkedIn that the studio was “concealing the fact that the team was Furloughed weeks ago.”
Reached by phone today, Scott told Game File that he spoke to nearly a dozen Bit Reactor workers over the weekend. “Everybody has essentially the same story, which is, ‘Yeah, I got furloughed three weeks ago.”
The Bit Reactor rep told Game File that the studio hoped to bring furloughed workers back with restored pay, suggesting that a successful launch of the game could be impactful.
Scott told Game File that workers he spoke to were less confident that even if there were returns, that all who were furloughed would get their old jobs again.
Bit Reactor’s mid-2026 was almost even more tumultuous. The lawsuit by co-founder Alison Kelly that first revealed the furloughs was initially slated to go to trial in June.
The suit is a she-said/he-said about whether Kelly, until 2024 the chief operating officer of Bit Reactor, was a co-owner of the studio or whether it was solely owned by Greg Foertsch.
In July 2024, Kelly sued, saying she was pushed out by Foertsch. She first sued in federal court and later refiled in Maryland’s Baltimore County, alleging breach of contract and that Foertsch had unjustly enriched himself. Kelly cited damages of over $20 million, on the basis of Bit Reactor allegedly being worth more than double that.
Foertsch’s side has said Kelly was never a co-owner and has countered with claims about her job performance (which she has denied).
The June trial was postponed until early 2027, as both sides have been deposing witnesses and filing more claims and denials along the way.
Amid all of that, filings in the lawsuit reviewed by Game File paint a picture about Bit Reactor’s origins, early aspirations around tactics games, the team’s breakthrough in drawing the attention of Electronic Arts with the help of a pitch tied to one of EA’s non-Star Wars franchises, and early fractures among its co-founders.
Subscribe to Game File to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.