It seems the downward trend in the gaming industry will not slow down in 2025. Splash Damage recently announced that it would downsize its company after canceling its biggest project, Transformers: Reactivate. The game was first revealed during The Game Awards in 2022 with a trailer depicting a chaotic scene of the Legion attacking Earth while a group of humans awaken a Transformer named Bumblebee. The game was planned to be an online action experience for one to four players, available on PC and consoles. Yet after years of silence, the first major news about this highly anticipated title is its cancellation.
Splash Damage posted an announcement on X telling their followers they had decided to stop working on Transformers: Reactivate. They said they would scale down to focus on other projects. Besides thanking the team for their hard work, the studio promised to support the staff during this trying period.
The cancellation of Transformers: Reactivate was certainly a surprise, considering the game was made in collaboration with Hasbro. Splash Damage only said that Hasbro was a supportive partner during their time working together and that they wished to collaborate with them in the future.
This news followed another announcement several months ago, in which Splash Damage said that some of its staff were at risk of being laid off. Back then, the company said that those affected would be on the operating side, with development teams remaining unaffected. They also stressed that they would continue working on their projects, which has been proven false with the new development.
Numerous Transformers fans have expressed their disappointment about the cancellation of Transformers: Reactivate. “More like Transformers: Deactivate,” one commenter wrote on X. Some even directly blamed Hasbro for this unfortunate turn of events. One fan said that while they’re disappointed, they weren’t surprised since they believed the game was at risk of being canceled after the team announced that they would be moving to another game engine.
Splash Damage has not elaborated more on why they must pull the plug on Transformers: Reactivate. Some said it was a misallocation of funds, and others said it could be due to prolonged development time. Ultimately, this is just one of many bad news the gaming industry has seen. Splash Damage isn’t the only studio struggling; just recently, Jar of Sparks announced their possible closure as Jerry Hook attempted to find a new publisher for his new studio.
