Star Wars Zero Company appears by all metrics to have been a rare success story in a sea of video game industry tumult. It has a very positive rating among Steam reviews, a stellar score on Metacritic, and now, according to the data firm Alinea Analytics, it has crossed 1 million sales in its first month.
“Zero Company has made about $50M since launching on August 27, respectable for this genre and during such a crowded period (even with the Star Wars brand attached),” the firm’s Rhys Elliott wrote in its latest newsletter. “Star Wars Zero Company has passed a million sold-through across Steam (69.9%), PlayStation (19.9%), and Xbox (10.2%, including Xbox PC).”
This estimate, while not yet confirmed by publisher EA, is notable for two reasons. The first is that it points to another quality AA game finding the breakout success it deserves. Like The Blood of Dawnwalker, another debut release from a first-time studio, which also recently crossed the 1 million sales milestone, Star Wars Zero Company is an excellent XCOM-like with solid gameplay, strong systems, and good storytelling that punches way above the weight class indicated by its budget.
Hitting 1 million sales would also presumably suggest a financial scenario in which Bit Reactor, which created the game in partnership with Respawn Entertainment, would be able to bring back the scores of developers who were furloughed in the lead-up to launch as the studio ran out of money. Only a skeleton crew was reportedly left in place to deal with the post-release patches and player support, and the studio is currently facing a lawsuit from its former chief financial officer over a company management and ownership dispute.
Neither Bit Reactor nor EA have yet confirmed what the process would be for bringing any employees back on board, or if furloughs will eventually turn into permanent layoffs. Part of that could depend on the details of the publishing deal that was in place, and what recoup threshold the game needs to hit for Bit Reactor to begin collecting revenue from it. Weeks after the furloughs were first made public, shitty situation seems not closer to being resolved.
