If you disregard the very child-friendly Earthspark Expedition and the slightly odd kart racer Galactic Trials, it’s been a long while since we last had a proper, AAA Transformers game. Despite being one of the biggest and coolest franchises around, it’s been pretty underserved in the 2020s. There has been a glimmer of hope on the horizon thanks to Transformers Reactivate, a promising-sounding co-op action game from the experienced team at Splash Damage. However, the studio has today revealed that it will be ending development on Transformers Reactivate and staff will unfortunately be put at risk of redundancy.
The hard times in the gaming industry show no signs of letting up, and Splash Damage’s announcement today only compounds that. Transformers Reactivate was first revealed during The Game Awards in 2022, and in the two-and-a-bit years since that moment, very little has been revealed about the co-op game.
Its one and only trailer is cinematic, and few gameplay details were revealed outside of it being a “1-4 player online action game” that would tell “a fresh, new story within the Transformers universe.” Splash Damage also said that players would “get to play as some of their favourite characters; unique, weighty, and powerful, seamlessly converting between vehicle and bot form as they battle The Legion; the greatest threat the Autobots have ever faced.”
Sadly, despite the backing of Hasbro, its promising premise, and Splash Damage’s experience working on big multiplayer franchises such as Doom, Halo, and Gears of War, Transformers Reactivate will never see the light of day.
“Today, we have some very difficult news to share,” the studio says. “The decision has been made to end development of Transformers: Reactivate. This means we will be scaling down to refocus our efforts on other projects. Unfortunately, despite every effort, a number of roles across the studio are now potentially at risk of redundancy.” No figures were given as to how many roles the company is looking to eliminate.
“While not being able to see the game through to release is painful, having to say goodbye to friends and colleagues hurts even more,” it adds. “We’re now focused on doing everything we can to support them through this tough period, just as we are committed to caring for those who will stay with us as we build a stronger Splash Damage for the future.”
As for what Splash Damage will focus on now, the only other thing it’s working on (that is publicly-known, anyway) is Project Astrid, an open-world survival game that is being developed by the studio alongside top streamers Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek and Chris ‘Sacriel’ Ball. Nothing has been mentioned about this project since it was announced in May 2023.
Transformers Reactivate isn’t the only game that’s recently been axed before we’ve even seen a moment of gameplay. Just this week, Jar of Sparks (the studio set up by former Halo veteran Jerry Hook) announced it would be “halting development” on its debut title. At the tail end of last year, former Mass Effect director Casey Hudson’s studio also canceled its first game and completely shut down due to a lack of funding.