Bit Reactor Returns More Than Half of Zero Company to Payroll

Bit Reactor has started putting Star Wars Zero Company developers back on payroll, restoring more than half of its pre-furlough headcount after an August launch. CEO Greg Foertsch said the returns began in the week of October 7, 2026, and that the studio wants to bring as many people back as possible. He did not say how many seats that is, or when the rest of the unpaid team comes home.

A person familiar with the studio said the new hires and recalls lift paid staff above half of the old roster. That still leaves a fair number of the people who shipped the game without salary or benefits.

Bit Reactor Starts Paying More of the Team

Foertsch broke the studio’s silence in a note posted to Bit Reactor’s social accounts, the first public comment on staffing since the furloughs became known in early September. He tied the recalls to ongoing support for Zero Company and thanked players for the launch response.

This week, we started the process of returning more of our team back to work at Bit Reactor, an important step forward in our continued support for Zero Company. Having to ask team members to step away after we navigated unexpected business developments outside of our control and so close to launch was an incredibly difficult decision, but one that was necessary to help us eventually bring as many people back as possible. This team means a tremendous amount to me, and I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together.

Greg Foertsch, CEO, Bit Reactor statement, October 7, 2026

The studio account posted that message with a still of Foertsch’s card.

We’re incredibly grateful for your support since the launch of STAR WARS Zero Company. Here’s a message from our CEO: pic.twitter.com/TtcsQbtfgv

— BIT REACTOR (@bitreactor) October 7, 2026

Foertsch promised more updates on Bit Reactor and Zero Company. He did not confirm the “more than half” figure, name a target headcount, or set a date for people still sitting at home. Players answering the post asked for extra missions and a livelier hub, which treats a payroll recall as a content restart and skips the staff who are not back on the books.

80 Percent of Staff Lost Pay Before Launch

Zero Company launched on August 27, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC. In the weeks before that date, Bit Reactor sent most of the people who built it home without pay. A studio representative confirmed in early September that many workers had been furloughed before launch, that the call was made before anyone knew how the game would sell, and that the order came from Bit Reactor, not from publisher Electronic Arts or from Disney.

One person put the cut at 80 percent of the team. Another described a skeleton crew left on payroll to handle post-launch bugs. An August 12, 2026 filing in the studio’s ownership fight said Bit Reactor “has furloughed most of its employees and terminated contractors.” The representative declined to give a count.

Zachariah Scott, a senior technical artist who worked at the studio from early 2023 until he left in May 2026, wrote that the company was concealing a furlough that had already happened. Reached by phone, he said he had spoken with nearly a dozen workers over that weekend. “Everybody has essentially the same story, which is, ‘Yeah, I got furloughed three weeks ago,’” Scott said. The workers he talked to were not sure that even a strong launch would restore every old job.

The representative said at the time that Bit Reactor hoped to bring people back with pay if the launch landed. Scott had also said Foertsch often talked about needing a new game deal to keep the lights on. By October 7, 41 days after launch, that hope had turned into a partial recall and no public roster.

THE ZERO COMPANY PAYROLL CLOCK

1. June 10, 2021: Bit Reactor and Electronic Arts sign the contract to build the Star Wars game.
2. July 26, 2024: Former chief operating officer Alison Kelly files a federal suit claiming 50 percent ownership.
3. February 10, 2025: The federal case is dismissed without prejudice after Kelly says she has already refiled in Baltimore County, Maryland.
4. August 12, 2026: A filing in the ownership case says the studio has furloughed most employees and ended contractor relationships.
5. August 27, 2026: Star Wars Zero Company launches on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.
6. September 1, 2026: Bit Reactor confirms many workers were furloughed before launch.
7. September 9, 2026: Patch 1.1 goes live on Steam.
8. September 22, 2026: Alinea Analytics estimates 1 million copies sold through.
9. October 7, 2026: Foertsch says the studio has started returning more of the team to paid work.

Maryland-based Bit Reactor was formed in 2021 as an independent tactics studio in Hunt Valley. Foertsch, a former Firaxis Games art director, is CEO and creative director. The company built Zero Company with Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games for EA.

What a Furlough Means at Bit Reactor

Furloughed Bit Reactor staff stayed on the books as employees and lost salary and benefits, a leave without pay that is not the same as a layoff and is easier to keep quiet. U.S. firms must give public notice after six months if a mass furlough is expected to last that long. As of Foertsch’s October 7 note, the unpaid stretch had lasted about two months, short of that line, which is why a hit Star Wars launch could still sit beside a quiet payroll cut.

HOW THE CUT WAS STRUCTURED

• Job status: Furloughed people remained employees, so the studio could recall them without a fresh hire.
• Pay and benefits: They received neither a paycheck nor benefits while they waited.
• Contractors: The August 12 filing said contractor relationships were ended, a harder cut than a furlough.
• Who decided: Bit Reactor said EA and Disney did not order the move; the studio had run out of most of its money before its first game shipped.
• Who stayed: A small paid group remained to ship patches, including the September 9 update.

That structure is why “more than half” of the old headcount can sound like a recovery while a large share of the original 80 percent cut is still unpaid. If a fifth of the company never left, crossing half of the old roster does not mean most of the furloughed group is back. Foertsch’s line about unexpected business developments sits next to the studio’s own admission that the cash ran out inside Bit Reactor.

The Sales That Were Supposed to End It

The commercial case for a full recall is already on the table. Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliott estimated in a September 22, 2026 note that Zero Company had passed 1 million sold-through copies across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, and had generated about $50 million since August 27. EA has not published its own figure. That money is estimated player spend on a published game, not Bit Reactor’s take-home, which is the hole in the reunion story.

ALINEA’S COPY SPLIT

Consoles account for 30.1 percent of those copies and about 40.1 percent of the estimated revenue, because console buyers pay more per copy. Elliott called the run respectable for the genre in a crowded window, Star Wars name included. About 90 percent of players sit in North America or Europe, with Asia under 5 percent.

Critics logged generally favorable scores, with Metacritic at 85 from 69 reviews. On Steam, 83 percent of 17,603 English reviews are positive, and 87 percent of 4,451 recent reviews recommend the game. Newzoo ranked it the sixth-best PC game of August by revenue in six major Western markets. The PC edition sells for $49.99.

Zero Company is a single-player Clone Wars turn-based tactics game about Hawks, a former Republic officer who leads a hired squad. Bit Reactor’s site still presents the company as a shop of XCOM and Civilization veterans in Hunt Valley. The people who made that debut were, until this month, mostly unpaid for the weeks around the moment it found an audience.

A Co-Ownership Suit Put the Cuts on Record

The public only learned the scale of the furloughs because of a fight over who owns the studio. Alison Kelly was Bit Reactor’s chief operating officer until 2024. She says she is a co-founder and 50 percent member. Foertsch’s side says she was never a co-owner and has questioned her job performance, which she denies.

Kelly’s July 2024 complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland asks the court to confirm that 50 percent stake. She alleges Foertsch locked her out of the books, stripped her duties, told the IRS and lenders he was the 100 percent owner, and valued that claimed interest at $43 million. She puts her damages above $20 million, on the claim that the company is worth more than double that. Those figures are her allegations, not findings.

The complaint says the parties never signed a final operating agreement. A draft circulated on April 27, 2021, listed equal ownership among the remaining members. Thomas Whittaker, the third member, resigned in the fall of 2023 and gave up his interest, which Kelly says left her and Foertsch at 50 percent each. Bit Reactor signed with EA on June 10, 2021, after Kelly says she helped get a pitch in front of Respawn executives in January 2020.

Judge James K. Bredar dismissed the federal case without prejudice on February 10, 2025, after Kelly consented and said she had already filed in Maryland’s Baltimore County. A trial that had been slated for June was postponed to early 2027 while both sides take depositions. The August 12, 2026 filing that recorded the furloughs sits in that live state case, which is how a private cash crunch became a public staffing story.

Gamescom Interviews, Empty Desks

Launch week was supposed to be the studio’s victory lap. Foertsch was in Cologne for Gamescom giving interviews about what Bit Reactor might make next, while a large share of the team that had just shipped the game was already off payroll. The representative later said the furlough decision was made before anyone could know how Zero Company would sell. The game then sold through an estimated 1 million copies, and the first official staffing update still stopped at more than half.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The recall: Foertsch said returns started in the week of October 7, 2026, as support work on Zero Company.
• The share back: A person familiar with the studio said paid headcount is now more than half of the pre-furlough roster.
• The original cut: One source put the furlough at 80 percent; an August 12 filing said most employees were furloughed and contractors were let go.
• The publisher: Bit Reactor said EA and Disney did not order the unpaid leave.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Headcount: Bit Reactor has not published how many people it employed, how many it sent home, or how many it has brought back.
• The remainder: There is no public timetable for staff who are still unpaid, and no promise that every furloughed job returns.
• The money: EA has not confirmed Alinea’s 1 million copies or about $50 million, and Bit Reactor’s share of that spend is not public.
• What ships next: Foertsch has not announced DLC, a roadmap, or a second game.

The remaining unpaid developers are still employees on paper, still waiting on the reunion Foertsch said the furlough was designed to make possible. Early 2027 is when the Baltimore County ownership fight is now set for trial. Until the studio names a number, “as many people as possible” is a hope, not a headcount.