Star Wars Zero Company was initially pitched as a game set in the Titanfall universe
Thanks to the influence of Vince Zampella.
One of the major releases in August was the tactical strategy game Star Wars Zero Company, which earned over $35 million on Steam alone in its first seven days post-launch.
Initially, it was conceived as a project inspired by Apex Legends and Titanfall. However, as the saying goes, the stars didn’t align — the team was instructed to base it on a more popular franchise.
This came to light thanks to journalist Stephen Totilo, who delved into the ongoing legal dispute between Bit Reactor co-founders Greg Foertsch and his fired partner Alison Kelly.
According to the documents, in 2020, Foertsch received a call from a contact with the initials VZ (presumably Vince Zampella, then head of Respawn Entertainment).
Zampella was aware that Foertsch, after leaving Firaxis, was preparing a new project. He inquired about it and also requested that a pitch be prepared using a franchise directly owned by Respawn.
The result of that call was a pitch using a universe owned by Zampella's game company. It was this pitch that was sent to the creators of Titanfall.
Subsequently, there was another call with Zampella. During it, Foertsch was informed that Respawn decided not to proceed with the project within its own IP. Instead, they asked him to prepare a similar pitch, but this time set in the Star Wars universe.
The new pitch ultimately materialized into Star Wars Zero Company, with Respawn also participating in its development.