After last week’s news of Respawn’s Star Wars shooter getting the axe, many fans were wondering about the fate of another Star Wars game – the strategy game from the folks at Bit Reactor. There’s good news on that front. Bit Reactor’s game was unscathed in last week’s layoffs/cancellations.
Bit Reactor’s Star Wars strategy game was first announced in early 2022 as part of a trio of game announcements. The other two were Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and the shooter game that was canceled last week.
In the announcement, EA said Respawn was producing the new strategy game while Bit Reactor heads up development. As far as we know, that relationship remains the same.
Bit Reactor is a newer studio led by Greg Foerstch. He previously served as art director on XCOM 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
We don’t know what angle Bit Reactor will take with the RTS genre for their new Star Wars game, but we do know the team comprises former XCOM, Civilization, Gears of War, and Elder Scrolls Online developers. While I’m partial to the more traditional takes on the RTS genre we’ve seen in previous Star Wars games like Empire at War, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the team at Bit Reactor try to evolve the XCOM formula to break past the traditional RTS audience.
In a chat with RockPaperShotgun late last year, Foertsch talks about how Baulder’s Gate 3 shows “there’s a thirst for something different now,” for the RPG genre and maybe even RTS. The biggest issue for the RTS genre is the barrier of entry. Longtime PC fans grew up with excellent strategy games like Starcraft, Age of Empires, etc. While Bit Reactor obviously wants regular RTS fans, they also want that cross-appeal that games like Baulder’s Gate 3 have enjoyed to huge success. The Star Wars IP will help, but it’ll be the gameplay that makes/breaks it.
We are still waiting to hear when we might get our first look at this strategy game. Bit Reactor responded to a question on Twitter/X and said we’ll see “as soon as it’s ready.”
