Star Wars Zero Company

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Set during the Clone Wars, Zero Company places players in the role of Hawks, a former Republic officer tasked with recruiting a crew of misfits and mercenaries to protect the galaxy from an emerging threat. Players can fully customize Hawks' gender, appearance, and voice at the beginning of the game.^[1] Combat in the game is turn-based, and played from a top-down perspective. Players issue commands to a squad of characters, which may include custom mercenaries as well as story-based characters. These characters can be sorted into different classes, though story-based characters have access to their own unique skills and abilities.^[2][3] Players can also create their own astromech droids, which focus on supporting the party and utilizing explosives.^[2] In each turn, each characters only has a limited number of action points that dictate how many actions they can perform and how far they can move, though they can be replenished within a turn using certain abilities.^[2] Squad members can sustain lasting injuries or even suffer permanent death, though the narrative continues regardless of who is lost.^[4] Different missions have different objectives. While each level is handcrafted by the developer, the placement of enemies is procedurally generated.^[5]

Between missions, players manage a base of operations known as the Den to conduct research, upgrade their gear, and launch strategic investigations and tactical strikes across the galaxy.^[3] Players advance time, known as "cycles", as they complete missions. Some objectives are time-limited, meaning that they will expire if they are not completed in time.^[2] Players can start non-combat operations to gather intel. In these missions, players must make narrative decisions that may lead to consequences several cycles later. The game features a progression system where players can choose which permanent upgrades to deny their enemies through sabotage.^[5] The game features elements commonly found in role-playing video games.^[6] Outside of combat, players can explore the world from a third-person perspective.^[7] At the Den, the player character can converse with different squad members. They will have differing personalities and world views and players must resolve their conflicts. While characters will not desert the party due to low approval, their dissatisfaction will trigger specific narrative consequences and story moments.^[5] Conversely, characters who frequently participate in combat operations together will develop stronger bonds, providing them with significant tactical synergy bonuses.^[3]

Zero Company is being developed by Bit Reactor, a studio founded in 2022. The development included many former staffers of Firaxis Games, including Greg Foertsch, founder of the company and creative director of the game.^[8] Foertsch previously served as the art director for the modern XCOM games.^[5] Foertsch was invited by Vince Zampella, the founder of Respawn Entertainment, to create a Star Wars tactics game.^[5]

The game was created with high production values, with the team introducing a third-person sections to the game styled similarly to cinematic action-adventure games. The story was written by Aaron Contreras, the writer behind the Star Wars Jedi games.^[5] The team was divided about adding permadeath, though it was subsequently decided that the inclusion of this feature fit Star Wars' core theme about loss.^[9] The game was designed to be accessible, with the team using the story to tutorialize its core gameplay mechanics.^[10] The Clone Wars era was chosen as the setting as the team felt that it provided a lot of opportunities for the team to tell an original story. The team read a lot of Star Wars books, as well as visiting Wookieepedia, to determine what planets and locations to include.^[11] The Clone Wars animated series, Rogue One, Andor, as well as Dirty Dozen inspired the themes and tone.^[12]

In January 2022, EA announced that Respawn was developing three games set in the Star Wars universe, including a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Jedi: Survivor), an unnamed first-person shooter which had since been cancelled, and Zero Company.^[13] Zero Company was announced in April 2025 during Star Wars Celebration in Japan. Publisher Electronic Arts is set to release the game in 2026 for Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.^[14]