The Star Wars tactics game that was revealed by developer Bit Reactor in 2024 now has a title—Star Wars Zero Company—and while virtually nothing else about the game has been revealed at this point, Electronic Arts says we'll get a proper look this coming weekend as part of the Star Wars Celebration in Japan.
We have had something of a look at Star Wars Zero Company already thanks to screens that leaked in March, revealing what looked very much like a Star Wars XCOM game. No surprise there, really: A significant portion of Bit Reactor is made up of former Firaxis developers, including co-founder, CEO, and creative director Greg Foertsch and lead animator Hector Antunez.
Foertsch left no doubt that he and the team weren't looking to move on to other things in a 2024 interview, telling PC Gamer that the tactical strategy "has the most room of any genre to grow," and that Bit Reactor is eager to pursue it.
The promo image is very grim and gritty, as Star Wars has become, but more notable to me is its greatest-hits lineup of characters: A clone trooper, a mandalorian, an alien weirdo with a lightsaber, R2D2's googly-eyed cousin, and of course Rock Starhunk, a rugged ne'er-do-well in a cool coat—military-ish, of course, because you just know he's a disaffected former something—who's clearly in charge of the whole thing.
Engage in turn-based tactical combat - STAR WARS Zero Company. Join us at #StarWars celebration on April 19 for a panel with @BitReactor, @Respawn, and @LucasfilmGames where we’ll share a world-exclusive first look at our new game. #SWZeroCoLearn more: https://t.co/B4Ky371FaA pic.twitter.com/xhM4btVXeLApril 14, 2025
No, it doesn't knock my socks off at all: If you told me these guys had won the Ebon Hawk in a game of space poker I'd just shrug and say 'okay.'
It's a minor criticism as these things go, and it's also still early days: Even if Star Wars Zero Company leans into well-worn tropes for its cast, the bigger question will be how it plays, and on that front I do hope (with all reasonable cautions in place, of course) that it will deliver. If you're going to make a Star Wars XCOM game, after all, you could do a lot worse than hiring a bunch of ex-XCOM developers to make it happen.
Star Wars Zero Company will be revealed at Star Wars Celebration Japan at 4:30 pm JST on April 19, which works out to 12:30 am PT/3:30 am ET on the same day.
