Star Wars Eclipse "literally cannot be finished" if layoffs go through, its devs reportedly say

Earlier this week, French video game union STJV called for a national industry strike, starting with a picket line held at Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream's physical studio. The union claimed that 115 jobs were at risk of layoffs as part of an "internal reorganisation." Now, based on a report that speaks with some devs that work at Quantic Dream, it sounds like the studio's upcoming Star Wars Eclipse is at risk of cancellation.

Speaking to Gamekult (translations via VGC), a dev working on the game called Jules explained that the strike is "far from being an act of sabotage. On the contrary, we’re trying to save Star Wars Eclipse." Jules explained that these 115 staff members at risk of being laid off don't contribute to the studio being overstaffed, and is just "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."

This week's protest was also allegedly held at the same time someone from Lucasfilm Games to check in on how Eclipse is progressing. Another developer named Théo felt that the strike was an opportunity to send a strong message, explaining that the game "literally cannot be finished if the redundancy plan is implemented as currently scheduled" without the at risk 115 staffers. "We absolutely need the 115 people who have been inactive (or almost) for a month already," Théo said. That’s a whole month of lost production! During that month, employees could have been trained on the specific tools of Star Wars Eclipse."

Star Wars Eclipse was revealed back in 2021, but apart from some leaked images, nothing has really been shown since then. The game will apparently let you play as various characters, and it's set during the High Republic era, when the Jedi were a lot more prolific than they are during the films. As a reminder, Quantic Dream were previously accused of abusive working conditions, though it's unclear what conditions are currently like at the studio outside of these recent reports of potentially impending layoffs.