The Star Wars strategy game in development at Bit Reactor and produced by Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi developer Respawn has survived after the recent mass layoffs at EA.EA announced plans in February 2024 to lay off around 670 workers, cancel or close games, and move away from future licensed intellectual property.The publisher currently has several confirmed Star Wars and Marvel games in development, including a third Jedi game, Black Panther, and Iron Man. But EA canceled Respawn’s Star Wars first person shooter, which was announced last year but had not yet been fully revealed.Last week was difficult for the industry, and more so because of our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn.Some had expressed concern about the fate of the Star Wars strategy game, but a tweet by developer Bit Reactor confirmed it survived the cull.“Last week was difficult for the industry, and more so because of our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn,” Bit Reactor said. “But for those asking, we are still hard at work, and our game was unaffected by last week’s news.”In a subsequent tweet responding to a question asking when the Star Wars strategy game would be unveiled, Bit Reactor said: “As soon as it’s ready…”EA announced the Star Wars strategy game in January 2022 alongside two others all overseen in one form or another by Respawn. We now know the FPS has fallen by the wayside, leaving Star Wars Jedi 3 and the strategy game in development. Neither have release windows. Bit Reactor was formed by Firaxis Games veterans best-known for their work on the XCOM franchise.Announcing the layoffs, EA boss Andrew Wilson said the company would now double down on owned IP, sports, and “massive online communities.” This marks yet another major blow to the games industry amid ongoing mass layoffs at studios of all sizes. The cuts impacted roughly 10,000 developers in 2023, and are approaching 8,000 in just the first two months of 2024.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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