Of the various projects cancelled amid last week’s EA layoffs, the unannounced Star Wars game from Bit Reactor lives on.
On Twitter, the studio recently confirmed it was “unaffected” by the publisher’s cuts. “We’re still hard at work,” it said, adding that the layoffs hurt it all the same due to “our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn.”
This makes the second unannounced project marked “safe” from last week’s cancellations, second to Guerrilla Games’ multiplayer Horizon game.
Bit Reactor was formed in 2022, and formed from veterans at XCOM studio Firaxis. Its Star Wars game is a strategy title to be produced by Respawn.
EA’s developers soldier on as best they can post-layoffs
The Star Wars Jedi studio was impacted by EA’s decision last week, resulting in the cancellation of a Star Wars project. While unannounced, it was rumored to be a Mandalorian-focused action title.
Its third Jedi game was unaffected, as were the Marvel games from Motive and Cliffhanger.
New developer Ridgeline Games was caught in the crossfire, however. It was tasked with the campaign for the next Battlefield, but with its closure, that task now falls to Criterion.
Game Developer spoke with Bit Reactor founder Greg Foertsch in 2023 about the legacy of strategy game design, which you can read here.