Getting Started

Overview

Star Wars Zero Company is a single-player turn-based tactics game developed by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm Games. You play as Hawks, a former Republic officer leading an off-books squad of professionals for hire against a plague-carrying cult in the final year of the Clone Wars.

It was announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan on 19 April 2025 and released on 27 August 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Bit Reactor estimates the main story campaign at 30 to 40 hours for the average player.

Release Date

Star Wars Zero Company was released on 27 August 2026 for PC (Windows via Steam, the EA App, and the Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The date was confirmed by EA on 5 June 2026 and applied to both the Standard and Deluxe Editions. See Editions & Pre-Order Bonuses for edition contents.

Launch Times

The game unlocked worldwide at the same moment, 15:00 UTC on 27 August 2026. There was no early access window for any edition.

Preloading was available ahead of launch. Allow for the ~50 GB of storage in the PC requirements below.

The Story

The game is set during the twilight of the Clone Wars, approximately 20 BBY, roughly one year before the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. It tells an original, canon Star Wars story with a grittier, more grounded tone, drawing inspiration from Andor, Rogue One, and the original trilogy.

Hawks’ military career ended in an undisclosed disaster. Together with the clone trooper Trick, they form Zero Company: an unconventional outfit recruited from across the galaxy, including a Jedi Padawan, a Mandalorian, a former Separatist soldier, mercenaries, and droids. Hired by a Republic Intelligence officer and a dispossessed noblewoman, the squad investigates the Infinite Coil, a Separatist-aligned cult led by Kundri Fathom that seeks to spread the Shadow Plague across the galaxy.

Every playthrough reaches the same canonical ending, but the journey there changes each time: which missions you take, which squadmates live or die, and the relationships you build along the way. Start with the Characters and Factions sections for the full cast.

How It Plays

The campaign loop. The campaign runs in Cycles: explore your base, run non-combat Operations from the holo-map, then launch one tactical combat mission to advance time. Missions and Operations carry timers and disappear if ignored, so you cannot do everything in one playthrough. Between missions you manage the Den, your base on the Ring of Kafrene; see Base Management.

Combat. Battles are turn-based and played from a top-down view: your whole squad acts, then the enemy force does. Each character has three action points (AP) per turn, spent on movement, attacks, and abilities. A squad-wide Advantage meter, charged by attacking enemies, powers special abilities without consuming AP. Cover, flanking, and high ground all shift your Chance-to-Hit. See the Combat System.

Classes. There are 12 character classes: 8 standard Specializations available to any recruit, and 4 exotic classes locked to specific story characters, including the Jedi Padawan and the Mandalorian. Operators later unlock a second specialization, opening up dual-class builds, and progress through a per-character Focus Tree. See the Classes.

Your squad. Story characters join as the campaign unfolds, and you can recruit and fully customise your own Operators, choosing species, specialization, weapon, voice, and name. You can even build your own astromech droid. See Squad Customisation and Species & Races.

Bonds and Dilemmas. Squadmates who fight together build Bonds that unlock cross-training bonuses, and even natural enemies can learn to work together. At key story moments, Dilemmas force decisions that every squad member has an opinion about, with permanent consequences for those relationships.

Permadeath. Everyone except Hawks can die permanently, named story characters included, and the story continues without them. Fallen operators accumulate injuries before death, creating a layer of risk management. It can be toggled via difficulty settings. See Permadeath.

Setting

The primary base of operations is the Den, located on the Ring of Kafrene, a mining colony and trading station that appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The squad deploys aboard a transport starship called the Caisson.

Tactical combat missions take place across approximately a dozen planets, including Lothal, Mapuzo, and Anaxes, while non-combat operations can reference over 150 planets across the galaxy. See Locations for every confirmed world.

Known Star Wars characters will appear as cameos: Anakin Skywalker has been confirmed, as shown in the Summer Game Fest 2026 gameplay trailer. Other characters from Star Wars: The Clone Wars may also appear but have not been officially confirmed.

Platforms, Editions & Requirements

The game is available in Standard and Deluxe Editions; see Editions & Pre-Order Bonuses for contents and bonus content. It is rated Teen (T) by the ESRB, with content descriptors for Mild Language and Violence, and supports offline play.

PC system requirements:

Console system requirements have not been published.

EA’s published troubleshooting guidance adds two PC notes. Players on an Intel Arc graphics card are advised to turn on Resizable BAR, which EA says improves frame rate and which is often off by default. EA also attributes low frame rates and crashes to out-of-date graphics drivers, and recommends checking for a newer one before playing.

Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch

No Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch version has been announced. Bit Reactor has said development is focused on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and that it will share news if that changes. The game is not Steam Deck Verified.

Reviewing the launch build on PC, PC Gamer tried the game on Steam Deck anyway and reported that it is not a realistic option: at the lowest settings with FSR at maximum, the reviewer measured 15 to 20 frames per second.

Windows Central noted in its review that the game does not support Xbox Play Anywhere, so a PC copy and an Xbox copy are separate purchases.

The Developers

Bit Reactor was founded in 2021 by creative director Greg Foertsch, previously art director at Firaxis Games for 22 years across the rebooted XCOM series and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. The project began when the late Vince Zampella (Respawn co-founder) offered the Star Wars licence after a single pitch meeting. The core team is around 20 strategy-game veterans, deliberately supplemented with developers from outside the genre, including people who worked on God of War and Elder Scrolls Online. The team’s stated design pillars are Star Wars fidelity, meaningful decisions, cinematic narrative, and a strategy layer meaningfully interconnected with tactical combat.

Zero Company is Bit Reactor’s first title. In a letter published by EA on launch day, Foertsch wrote that the studio had always wanted to work with an existing licence but that “Star Wars was not on our bingo card until Vince gave us this incredible opportunity”, and that the Clone Wars setting was chosen because it allowed a fresh story with an entirely new cast while keeping the parts of Star Wars audiences already know. He described the studio’s aim as pushing the strategy genre forward while making an experience that welcomes players of all kinds.

On 1 September 2026, Game File’s Stephen Totilo reported that around 80% of Bit Reactor’s team was furloughed ahead of the game’s release, with a skeleton crew kept on payroll for post-launch bug fixing. Bit Reactor described the furlough as a difficult decision taken before it was clear how launch would go, and said it hoped to bring furloughed staff back with restored pay. Whether pay has been restored has not been confirmed.

On what the studio does next, Foertsch told VGC on launch day that Bit Reactor intends to work on another licensed game rather than an original one, and that Star Wars is a candidate: “We’ve loved working with Lucasfilm. It’s been an absolute joy and such a good experience. So we’d love to keep making Star Wars, potentially.” Nothing has been announced.

Soundtrack

The original score is composed by Grammy-winning composer Gordy Haab (Star Wars Jedi series, Star Wars Battlefront). The soundtrack was released on 27 August 2026 via Walt Disney Records, on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Its opening track is “Zero Company”. See the Soundtrack & Track List page for the complete announced listing.

Trailers

Video Guides

Release Date and New Gameplay Trailer Breakdown (Zero Command)

Star Wars Zero Company: Is This the New XCOM? (Zero Command)

About This Wiki

The Zero Company Wiki is an independently maintained reference for Star Wars Zero Company, run by the team behind the Zero Command  YouTube channel.

All content is sourced from official materials: EA announcements, Lucasfilm Games releases, and hands-on press previews. Nothing on this wiki is speculation. Where information has not been officially confirmed, pages are marked as stubs until a verified source is available.

The wiki is updated as new information becomes available. If you spot something inaccurate or outdated, get in touch at joe@zerocommand.gg.

For video breakdowns, analysis, and Zero Company coverage, visit the Zero Command channel on YouTube .

References

If information is missing, it has not yet been confirmed. Corrections are welcome.