After years of silence, Transformers: Reactivate dev has confirmed what most of us feared – the game has been cancelled
Splash Damage, the UK-based studio behind the long-in-development Transformers: Reactivate has delivered some terrible news this week. The co-op action game, which was announced in December, 2022, will not be released.
The developer revealed that development on the title has ceased, and confirmed that some roles may be lost as a result of this downsizing.
The announcement was made on Wednesday, after months of complete radio silence. Transformers fans hoping for a triple-A experience from an established studio kept holding out hope that Transformers: Reactivate would re-appear at The Game Awards or some other show, but it never did. Many, had, in fact, considered it dead.
“This decision did not come lightly, and it is a difficult time for the studio and our people,” the statement reads. “We want to take a moment to thank the team who worked on Transformers for their dedication and passion.”
Splash Damage also said that it would like to work with license holder Hasbro again in the future, though that could just be what you’d saw in a situation like this. The developer has other titles in the works – though not with Hasbro – that it will now focus on.
Part of why this news is disappointing is the loss of potential. We didn’t get to see much of Reactivate, but it was pitched as a four-player, online action game set in a post-invasion world where you’d be taking command of some of the most known Autobots.
Splash Damage even acquired Bulkhead, the small indie studio behind multiplayer shooter Battalion 1944, to work on the game. A beta was set for 2023 that never happened, and the developer later promised to share more in 2024, and nothing materialised.
If there’s a silver lining to this it’s that some studios with open roles are already directing those at risk of redundancy to apply. We do hope everyone finds a new job.