Bit Reactor’s Star Wars strategy game unaffected by EA layoffs

Developer is working closely with Respawn on the project

Bit Reactor has announced that the Star Wars strategy game it currently has in development will remain unaffected by the recent layoffs at EA, which saw a Star Wars first-person shooter game created at Respawn Entertainment get axed.

“Last week was difficult for the industry, and more so because of our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn,” the statement by Bit Reactor said. “But for those asking, we are still hard at work, and our game was unaffected by last week's news.”

Respawn Entertainment is assisting Bit Reactor with the as yet untitled Star Wars game, which will be the studio’s debut work, hence the cuts at the renowned developer led to questions about the strategy project. It’s currently unknown what kind of strategy game Bit Reactor is working on.

Respawn's Star Wars FPS may have been blown up, bit Bit Reactor's strategy game remains on course :: Lucasfilm / EA

Founded by former members of Firaxis, Bit Reactor has people with experience in big 4X games like Civilization as well as more tactical affairs like XCOM, so they could go in any direction.

Around the time this game was founded, Bit Reactor stated that it would be focusing on tactical turn-based games similar to XCOM, so it’s widely expected that its Star Wars project will follow that route.

In an interview with Game Developer, Bit Reactor CEO and game director Greg Foertsch said that the studio’s cinematic director worked on Gears of War before, not strategy games, which enabled them to bring “a whole different perspective to our camerawork.” Fancy camerawork is not something you’d need in a turn-based 4X strategy game, but very much fits into the mold of your regular turn-based tactical experience, where you’ll get close-up shots of characters during attacks and other actions.

In the same interview, Foertsch indicated that controller support and accessibility would be some of the priorities for the team, so it’s pretty safe to assume that the unnamed Star Wars strategy game in development at Bit Reactor will be available on PC as well as PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

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