Star Wars Zero Company enjoyed a hugely successful launch last week.The trouble is, it’s now come to light that most of the team who made it happen were watching from afar, without pay, as they were placed on furlough weeks earlier.
As first reported by Game File, a significant chunk of the Zero Company team at Bit Reactor was furloughed before the Star Wars game’s release. That means they were sent home and, since the reason given for this decision was the studio ran out of money, those affected were not paid, and continue to not be paid as the furlough remains in place. It's been confirmed that this was a Bit Reactor decision, and not an edict handed down by EA or Disney.
The Bit Reactor rep who shared the news with Game File didn’t disclose exactly how many employees were furloughed. However, a lawsuit from 2024 filed by studio co-founder Alison Kelly, which went largely unnoticed until now, mentions in an updated filing that the furlough affects “most of its employees”.
Other unnamed sources close to the situation have provided even more accurate estimates of just how few people were left at Bit Reactor when Zero Company launched. One claims that as much as 80% of the team was sent home ahead of the new release, while another corroborates that by revealing that only a skeleton crew was left to make sure Zero Company made it out the door.
Since the employees were furloughed, not laid off, then the hope now is that they will be brought back. Former Bit Reactor senior technical artist, Zachariah Scott, shared on LinkedIn that the furlough happened around three weeks ago, telling Game File in a follow-up call that the hope among many of thse affected would be that if Zero Company’s launch was big enough, they’d be brought back.
Well, it couldn’t have been much bigger. Not only is the tactical game among the highest-rated Star Wars games ever, but it has been a hit with fans, too. Its concurrent player count on Steam immediately soared past Jedi: Fallen Order’s peak, and right now it’s the best-selling paid game on Steam.
All of that should mean that, in the coming days or weeks, furloughed employees will be asked to come back to work and they’ll start to get paid again. Some who Scott spoke to aren’t confident that’s going to be the case, though. It’s unclear what Bit Reactor will be working on next, and if there is no new project to make a start on, there might be nothing to bring the employees back for.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/star-wars-zero-company-bit-reactor-employees-furloughed/
