Bit Reactor just pulled the plug on payroll for most of the team behind Star Wars Zero Company weeks before the tactics game's launch, leaving a skeleton crew to ship and patch what turned out to be one of the best-reviewed Star Wars titles in over two decades. Sources peg the furloughs at roughly 80 percent of staff after the small studio founded in 2021 burned through its cash on its debut project, with the decision coming from Bit Reactor alone — EA and Lucasfilm/Disney had no hand in it. A studio rep called it a tough call made before anyone knew how launch would land, and they're now hoping strong sales will let them restore pay for the furloughed devs.

The move surfaced amid an ugly co-founder lawsuit: Alison Kelly sued CEO Greg Foertsch in 2024 over ownership and her ouster, and an August update to the filing explicitly noted that "most" employees had been furloughed and contractors terminated. Former senior technical artist Zachariah Scott went public on LinkedIn accusing the studio of concealing the cuts while execs hyped the game at events like Gamescom. Scott and other sources say many affected staff aren't confident they'll all get their old roles back even if revenue flows in.

Zero Company launched August 27 to strong critical reception (Metascores in the mid-80s range) and solid Steam performance, but the timing makes the whole situation read like classic indie crunch math gone wrong — ship first, pray the numbers save the rest of the team later. A skeleton crew stayed on payroll specifically for post-launch bug fixes while the majority sat unpaid.

This isn't some publisher-mandated bloodletting; Bit Reactor ran out of runway on its first game and chose furlough over immediate layoffs, which some observers are calling a marginally better move than the usual axe. The $20 million lawsuit hanging over the studio adds another layer of uncertainty for anyone waiting on callbacks.