A couple of weeks ago, word spread about an upcoming Star Wars game developed by Bit Reactor and Respawn. The wait for more details wasn’t very long, as EA formally announced it — Star Wars Zero Company — today in a post on X (formerly Twitter). The upcoming title will be a turn-based, tactical combat game, and if rumors are true, it’ll be similar to XCOM.
For now, details are fairly slim. EA announced the game but hasn’t released a trailer or any specifics beyond the official game art above, so the final gameplay remains a mystery. However, there is a name and a genre, which is a start.
“Recruit an unconventional team of operatives and deploy them on missions unlike any other in the galaxy far, far away in Star Wars Zero Company,” said the official Star Wars blog. “The newly announced single-player turn-based tactics game will share the first details about the game currently in development with attendees at Star Wars Celebration Japan.”
That means people won’t have to wait too long to learn more details. Star Wars Celebration in Japan is set to start on April 18 and run through April 20. The full announcement and gameplay reveal will take place on April 19 per EA’s tweet.
In the meantime, fans can sign up with their email to get more details when they become available. In either case, more information will be provided over the coming weekend.
A Star Wars twist on a tactical classic
While EA didn’t provide any gameplay footage, existing rumors show that the game is heavily influenced by XCOM. This is based on screenshots shared by a Bit Reactor employee from 2023. Thus, they likely came from an early build of the game, and the final product may look much different.
For those who haven’t played the series, XCOM is a turn-based tactical combat game where you move your squad around on the map and attack the enemy. Players return to HQ between missions to purchase upgrades and plan their next mission.
The leaked screenshots have a lot of those same XCOM elements. This one shows the potential travel path of a player-controlled character, and this one shows the attack options once the character has moved. Finally, this GIF shows off the HQ players who will supposedly visit between missions to buy gear, upgrade characters and check out the next mission.
It isn’t too surprising that Zero Company would look a lot like the beloved team-based tactical game, as Bit Reactor itself is formed of veterans who worked on Firaxis’ XCOM. In a January 2024 story from PC Gamer, Bit Reactor developers talked about their close collaboration with Respawn, the EA studio that progressed from its Titanfall and Apex Legends first-person shooter roots to release the acclaimed Star War Jedi games (Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor).
But even this year, fans were connecting the dots between Bit Reactor, Respawn and this year’s Star Wars Celebration, with StarWarsNet predicting a reveal at the event in January and IGN reaffirming it in March.
There’s been no word yet as to which platforms the upcoming Zero Company will support. However, the existence of controller buttons in the leaked screenshots indicates that it’ll likely come to both PC and console.
EA and the company should release a full-blown trailer at the event so people only have to guess for a few more days.
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