Splash Damage has announced that upcoming online multiplayer action game Transformers: Reactivate has been canceled, and that a number of roles at the studio may now be "at risk of redundancy".
In a message on social media platform X, Splash Damage says that as well as canceling Transformers: Reactivate, the studio will be "scaling down to refocus [its] efforts on other projects", which is why some staff may be laid off.
The studio doesn't specify which staff members or which departments are most at risk, but it does say that "having to say goodbye" to employees "hurts even more" than not being able to release Transformers: Reactivate.
The cancellation of Transformers: Reactivate probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The game was first revealed during the Game Awards opening ceremony back in 2022, but since then, Splash Damage has been pretty quiet about its development.
Outside of the (admittedly rather evocative) announcement trailer, Splash Damage didn't reveal much about Reactivate, save that it would be an online-focused action game for 1-4 players and that it would come to PC and consoles.
Following the initial reveal, however, Splash Damage did announce that it had purchased Transformers: Reactivate development partner Bulkhead. As far as we know, Bulkhead remains a Splash Damage subsidiary despite the cancellation.
At some point, Splash Damage planned to hold a closed beta for the game, but it looks like that test never materialized either, at least for public-facing signups.
Between this cancellation and the underwhelming release of Outright Games' action-racing roguelite Transformers: Galactic Trials, it seems that Transformers fans are having a pretty bad couple of years when it comes to video game adaptations of the property.
It doesn't sound like Splash Damage is shutting down entirely as a result of this cancellation, so we'll have to wait and see what the studio does next. Stay tuned for more.
