The studio suspended the majority of its staff ahead of the tactical Star Wars title's launch. Now it's bringing back many suspended employees.
Last month, it was reported by Game File and later confirmed by the company that Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor had been forced to furlough over 80 percent of the company's employees down to a skeleton crew that remained at the studio. Today, the studio announced it is beginning to bring team members back and undo those furloughs.
"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," Bit Reactor CEO Greg Foertsch said in a statement shared on social media today.
In Game File's reporting, sources familiar with the situation estimated the amount of returning employees replenishing the studio to more than half of what it had been before the furloughs. This means that a fair number of employees can return to work, but many that had been suspended without pay as part of this process have not been brought back yet.
As Game File points out, furloughs fall into a grey area when it comes to regulations set by the United States Department of Labor. The agency does not require companies to disclose specific numbers until or unless workers have been laid off.
Neither the statement nor the reporting indicate whether the employees who have been brought back—or even those who haven't—are expected to receive profit sharing from the game’s successful launch, a concern shared by a former employee on LinkedIn .
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