It seems like developer Bit Reactor might be going through a rough time right now, despite just launching a Star Wars title that has received strong reviews and seemingly decent player numbers for a niche genre.

Stephen Totilo has the details in his latest Game File newsletter. According to him and his sources, up to 80% of the Bit Reactor team may have been furloughed in the weeks leading up to the game’s launch in an effort to save the studio from going under after it had run out of money.

It’s hard to get an exact idea of how many people work at Bit Reactor. The company’s LinkedIn page lists it as having anywhere from 51–200 employees, while roughly 90 people currently have Bit Reactor listed as their employer. Other third-party estimates put the company in much the same ballpark: LeadIQ estimated around 96–97 employees earlier this year, while Growjo currently estimates 90.

That figure lines up with older information, too. Greg Foertsch, CEO of Bit Reactor, told the Maryland Department of Commerce in 2023 that the studio had grown to around 55 employees and expected to ramp up to nearly 100. This would have been while Zero Company was in development.

So, while none of these figures amount to an official current headcount, it’s reasonable to estimate Bit Reactor had somewhere around 90–100 employees. If the reported 80% figure is accurate, that could mean somewhere in the region of 72–80 people were furloughed.

An official rep for the studio confirmed that staff being furloughed was true, but declined to tell Totilo the extent. However, the rep did apparently emphasise that this was Bit Reactor’s decision, not EA’s.

It’s important to highlight that being furloughed is not the same as being laid off. Furlough is essentially an unpaid leave of absence. Furloughed workers typically retain their employment and may keep benefits depending on their arrangements, with the intention being that they can eventually return to work. Of course, furlough can also ultimately end in termination.

In a case like this, the plan seems to have been to pause employee wages in an effort to keep the company afloat while Star Wars: Zero Company launches and hopefully brings in enough cash to get Bit Reactor stabilised again. In an ideal and beautiful world, the game sells millions of copies, everyone comes back and Bit Reactor lives to fight another day.

The exact number of people on furlough isn’t known. Totilo says different sources gave him slightly different estimates, with one saying there was just a skeleton crew left, another stating that most of the team are currently furloughed, and one estimating the figure at roughly 80%. The language being used by the sources certainly makes that 80% estimate sound plausible.

The furloughs were also confirmed via an ongoing lawsuit by co-founder Alison Kelly against Greg Foertsch. Kelly was the chief operating officer of Bit Reactor until 2024 and is claiming that she was forced out by Foertsch. Kelly is alleging breach of contract and unjust enrichment, and is seeking more than $20 million in damages based on claims that Bit Reactor is worth more than twice that amount.

Meanwhile, Foertsch is hitting back by claiming Kelly’s performance was not up to snuff and disputing her claim that she was a co-owner of Bit Reactor.

Basically, a lot of legal drama that is undoubtedly not helping Bit Reactor’s currently precarious position. But the legal battle did at least confirm on August 12 that the furloughs are very much real. It also confirmed that at least some contractors were terminated outright.

Meanwhile, on LinkedIn, Zachariah Scott went on a small and justified rant about the team. Scott was laid off three months ago from Bit Reactor and this weekend decided to open up about the furloughs.

“It is sick and weird to have all of these EA and Disney folks as well as Bitreactor Senior staff making all of these 10/10 posts about Star Wars : Zero Company being such a huge success and praising the work of the team while seemingly concealing the fact that the team was Furloughed weeks ago,” said Scott.

“It would be such a different story if they had been upfront about it earlier, and now it feels like they’re trying to keep the team in a holding pattern with good vibes and more empty promises.”

Stephen Totilo says he spoke with Scott on the phone, where Scott said he had spoken to nearly a dozen Bit Reactor employees over the weekend and heard essentially the same story every time: “Yeah, I got furloughed three weeks ago.”

Personally, I’m in the middle of playing Star Wars: Zero Company for review and it is a genuinely strong game, and one of the better Star Wars titles. The story in particular seems very strong, while the gameplay is a very safe but wholly enjoyable execution of the XCOM formula.

Which makes this whole story suck even harder: this is a good game, and good games should bring good things to the team who made them.

It’s a shame that’s not how the world works.