Last week’s EA layoffs announcement had the company reiterating commitment to owned IP and a step away from as many licensed projects. With the job losses this will bring, there were also several games shut down and reorganizations to come. There are a few bright spots, including for Bit Reactor’s upcoming Star Wars strategy title.
EA’s statement that it would cut about 5% of its workforce over the next year came with a string of moves that mean the company will move more of its focus to owned IPs and expand upon their most successful projects. While some cancellations were directly indicated, like the Star Wars FPS that was scrapped, other projects, particularly in light of the stance on licensing, raised questions.
Bit Reactor is a strategy games studio formed by devs with experience at studios like Firaxis, and with work on the XCOM franchise and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Back in 2022, Respawn Entertainment announced that EA was working on several new Star Wars titles, including what turned out to be Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, and oversee a strategy title from Bit Reactor. A third title in the Jedi: Fallen Order / Survivor series was confirmed to still be on the way in the layoffs and restructuring announcement. Now we know that Bit Reactor’s yet unannounced strategy title is “unaffected by last week's news”.
Last week was difficult for the industry, and more so because of our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn.But for those asking, we are still hard at work, and our game was unaffected by last week's news.
— BIT REACTOR (@bitreactor) March 2, 2024
This came via a brief comment on X (Twitter), and the team is still at work on this upcoming strategy title. We will have to wait longer to find out more info on the game, but at least it's still in the works.
