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STAR WARS Zero Company is developed by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games, and published by Electronic Arts. Bit Reactor leads the project, with Respawn and Lucasfilm Games working alongside the studio.
A Studio of Tactics Veterans
Bit Reactor was founded by Greg Foertsch, who spent years as an art director at the studio behind the modern XCOM games before starting the company. Many of the team came from that same turn-based-strategy background, and that pedigree is visible throughout the design. Foertsch is Bit Reactor's CEO and creative director, while Aaron Contreras is the studio's narrative director. The team's experience in the genre is part of why the game leans so heavily on cover, action points, and permadeath.
By the studio's own account, roughly twenty of the developers came from strategy-game backgrounds, joined by others whose credits range from God of War to Elder Scrolls Online. Greg Foertsch was an original member of the XCOM studio's art department, and lead designer James Brawley spent eight years there as a level and technical designer before the two reunited at Bit Reactor.
Bit Reactor describes itself as an independent, developer-first studio created by longtime strategy developers, and names XCOM, Civilization, Gears of War and Elder Scrolls Online among its team's prior credits. It publishes no founding year. On the Lucasfilm side, Douglas Reilly, vice president and general manager of Lucasfilm Games, has spoken for the collaboration publicly.
Foertsch has described the project's origin as an unlikely one. The studio pitched the idea to Vince Zampella and had always wanted to work on an existing property, but a Star Wars game was not what it expected to be handed; by Foertsch's account it took Zampella's conviction for the pitch to become this game. Bit Reactor's stated aim was to push the strategy genre forward and to use the setting to widen who a modern strategy game is for.
Foertsch's own title is published two ways in first-party material. The launch press release calls him Game Director and CEO, while his letter to players on launch day signs off as CEO and Creative Director. Both are current.
Key Credits
Role | Person |
|---|---|
CEO and Creative Director (Bit Reactor) | Greg Foertsch |
Narrative Director (Bit Reactor) | Aaron Contreras |
Lead Producer (Bit Reactor) | Caydence Funk |
Senior Producer (Respawn) | Jim Vessella |
Executive Producer (Lucasfilm Games) | Orion Kellogg |
Art Director | Daanish Syed |
Technical Director | Ryan McFall |
Composer | Gordy Haab |
Creature Design | Terryl Whitlatch |
Announcement and Reveal
Electronic Arts first announced an untitled Star Wars strategy game from the studio in early 2022. The game was unveiled as STAR WARS Zero Company in April 2025 at Star Wars Celebration in Japan, shown as a turn-based tactics title set during the Clone Wars. A gameplay trailer arrived during Summer Game Fest in June 2026, pulling back the curtain on combat, the Den, and the squad, and revealing a confirmed appearance by Jedi General Anakin Skywalker.
On July 25, 2026, Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm Games held a cast and developer panel for Star Wars Zero Company at San Diego Comic-Con. Narrative director Aaron Contreras and Lucasfilm creative executive Kelsey Sharpe appeared with cast members Dee Bradley Baker, Jonathan Freeman, Rekha Sharma, and Vic Michaelis. The session named the full voice cast, opened pre-orders for the Collector's Edition, and premiered the first track from the soundtrack.
A final trailer followed on August 17, 2026, ten days ahead of release. It leads with the story rather than the systems, giving the clearest look at Kundri Fathom, the Infinite Coil, and the Shadow Plague the cult means to spread. The game released on August 27, 2026 at 3:00 PM GMT, unlocking everywhere at once.
Tone and Influences
The developers have framed Zero Company as a gritty, grounded war story told from the perspective of expendable professionals rather than heroes of legend. The team has cited the political intrigue of Andor and Rogue One alongside the varied arcs of the Clone Wars as tonal touchstones. High production values and cinematic presentation sit on top of the tactics foundation, with the aim of a game that feels authentically Star Wars while telling a story the saga has not told before.
Music
The original score is composed by Gordy Haab, a Grammy-winning composer. The soundtrack released on August 27, 2026 through Walt Disney Records, the same day as the game. Walt Disney Records had released the title track, "Zero Company," on July 25, 2026 as the first piece of that score to go public, with the complete album following on launch day.
Walt Disney Records released the title track, "Zero Company," on July 25, 2026 as the first piece of that score to go public, with the complete album following on launch day.
Voice Cast
Bit Reactor named the full cast at the same panel. Dee Bradley Baker voices Trick and the clone troopers, Jonathan Freeman and Erica Luttrell split the two voice options for Hawks, Rekha Sharma voices Kundri Fathom, and Matt Lanter voices Anakin Skywalker. All fifteen credited roles are listed on Voice Cast.
Technical and Support Decisions
Decision | Detail |
|---|---|
Cutscenes | Mostly rendered in real time so player customization carries into story scenes, with a few pre-rendered exceptions |
Mod support | No official mod support planned |
Monetization | No plans for monetization or microtransactions at this time |
Post-launch content | Nothing announced |
The team has framed the real-time cutscene choice as a customization decision rather than a technical one: it mattered to them that the character a player builds is the character they see.
At Launch
The game shipped on August 27, 2026 across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a build that runs natively rather than through a separate launcher. Bit Reactor published a launch FAQ the same day covering specifications, permadeath, display and controller support, and the absence of New Game Plus, mod support and microtransactions. It also shipped with a day-one patch that pre-release reviewers did not have. Two weeks on, no post-launch update has followed, though the team has said a first one addressing bugs and performance is being prepared.
After Launch
The commercial launch went well. The game topped its main storefront’s weekly sales chart, entered the UK physical chart at number two, and placed eleventh among PlayStation 5 downloads across the United States, Canada and Europe for August. Critical reception was strong and the player rating settled at Very Positive.
The studio’s own position was much less comfortable. Reporting that emerged at the end of August described Bit Reactor placing most of its staff on unpaid furlough roughly two weeks before the game shipped, with one account putting the figure at 80 percent of the team. The studio was described as having run out of most of its money shortly before launch, and as having been caught up in a long-running legal dispute between two founders over ownership of the company. A studio representative said the furlough decision was Bit Reactor’s own rather than the publisher’s, and that it hoped to bring furloughed staff back on the strength of the game’s performance.
That context matters for the pace of post-launch support. The people preparing the first update have been described as a skeleton crew, which is the practical reason a well-reviewed game went almost two weeks without a patch. See Patch History for the update timeline and Known Issues and Bugs for what players have reported.