A couple of days ago, some employees of French developer Quantic Dream staged a strike in front of the studio's Paris headquarters in an attempt to save both up to 115 colleagues (who are on the verge of being laid off) and the studio's big Star Wars Eclipse project.
Let's hit the rewind button for a minute. The development of Star Wars Eclipse, formally announced at The Game Awards 2021, has reportedly "simmered" for years as the studio struggled in many areas, including hiring new talent. Then, in late 2025, Quantic Dream announced another game, the 3v3 MOBA Spellcasters Chronicles, which was, however, shuttered down last month after mere months of being live, triggering an "internal reorganization" at the French studio.
That's a codeword for layoffs, in case it wasn't clear. Up to 115 employees from that team are now at risk, and that's why the aforementioned strike took place. Two of the protesters spoke with Gamekult, revealing that they are not only trying to save their colleagues' jobs but also Star Wars Eclipse itself, which they reckon cannot be completed if the cuts are enacted.
Jules: It's far from being an act of sabotage. On the contrary, we're trying to save Star Wars Eclipse. We could manage to release it with 115 additional people, and that wouldn't be 'overstaffed': it's what's needed. We're understaffed, like in many other companies in the sector, because bosses know very well that passion will lead people to crunch time and that games will eventually be released. But it's impossible to run a sustainable industry like that.
Théo: We believe that, as things stand, the game literally cannot be finished if the redundancy plan is implemented as currently scheduled. We absolutely need the 115 people who have been inactive (or almost) for a month already. That's a whole month of lost production! During that month, employees could have been trained on the specific tools of Star Wars Eclipse. To give you an example, in our team, there are many people who only come in once a week, and that's just to see their colleagues, because there's no more concrete work to do [on Spellcasters Chronicles]. We also want to strongly alert management and tell them to look at all these people who are eager to work but aren't, on the day of an official visit.
The day of the strike wasn't chosen at random, either. This Thursday, Lucasfilm went to Quantic Dream's headquarters to review the progress on Star Wars Eclipse. Needless to say, the situation is dire: NetEase is rumored to be looking to sell the studio (which it acquired in early 2023 for €100 million), so unless Lucasfilm itself agrees to finance the remainder of development, the project's very existence may be in question.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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