Transformers: Reactivate Canceled, Developer Splash Damage Laying Off Staff

There was a Transformers video game, Transformers: Reactivate, in the works at Splash Damage, but it's been axed.

Transformers: Reactivate has been deactivated before it could so much as punch a Decepticon. This online shooter won’t be seeing the light of day, and layoffs/redundancies are in the work at developer Splash Damage.

According to Splash Damage’s tweet, “…the decision has been made to end development on Transformers: Reactivate. The decision did not come lightly and it is a difficult time for the studio and our people.”

The statement goes on to praise Hasbro, which owns the rights to Transformers, for being a great development partner. It doesn’t, however, specify who made the call to cancel Transformers: Reactivate. Was it Hasbro’s call or Splash Damage’s? And why was it canned?

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It wouldn’t surprise me if the poor performance of several live-service games, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League included, made Splash Damage and/or Hasbro a little nervous, unsure that the game could pull in the profits they wanted. Or maybe it just wasn’t where it needed to be, quality-wise. Hopefully, we’ll learn more later.

Going by the gameplay footage of Transformers: Reactivate floating around out there, it was looking rather fun. Announced two years or so ago, it was set on a post-apocalyptic Earth where the Decepticons had reduced the planet to ruins. Hasbro was, at least, confident enough in the game to put out merchandise based on it, well ahead of its 2025 release date.

There’s more bad news, too. Splash Damage’s statement also mentions that the studio is “..scaling down to refocus our efforts on other projects”, and that “… a number of roles across the studio are now potentially at risk of redundancy”. In other words, the staff who worked on this now-canceled game stand to be laid off. That’s absolutely not how you want to start off the New Year.

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