A debut from XCOM veterans, and a Star Wars tactics game with no battle pass

Steam’s weekly global top sellers chart for the week of August 25, 2026 places STAR WARS Zero Company at number one[1]. Counter-Strike 2 sits directly below it at number two[1]. The two have almost nothing in common. One is a free online shooter that has been running for years, and the other is a paid single-player game that shipped seven days earlier.

The release date was August 27, 2026. PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S all received the game on the same day, and none of them received an early access build, meaning a version sold while still unfinished[2][3]. Bit Reactor developed it, Electronic Arts published it, and Lucasfilm Games worked alongside them[3].

Every figure below was read on September 3, 2026 from storefronts and official pages. At 19:39 UTC that day the Steam concurrent player count stood at 33,718[4]. Steam also runs a live top-sellers chart, but that one ranks by revenue and shifts within hours, so this review quotes the weekly placement only.

A squad handed over as the Clone Wars wind down

Turn-based tactics works the way chess does. Players move and fire on their own turn, then wait while the opposition takes theirs. Steam describes the game as a single-player turn-based strategy title about commanding an elite squad in the twilight of the Clone Wars[2], and the EA press release uses the phrase single-player turn-based tactics[3].

The player character is Hawks, a former Republic officer, and the squad he leads is Zero Company[2]. Facing him are the Infinite Coil, a Separatist-aligned paramilitary cult, and its leader Kundri Fathom[5]. A galaxy-consuming threat called the Shadow Plague and a base of operations called The Den complete the list of names that appear in official material[3].

Store data confirms the solo framing without ambiguity. Steam’s category list contains Single-player, Steam Achievements, Trading Cards and Cloud saves, and carries no multiplayer entry whatsoever[2]. No co-op, no versus.

The people behind it deserve a line. This is Bit Reactor’s first shipped game, and the EA press release introduces the studio as a team assembled from developers who worked on XCOM, Civilization, Gears of War and The Elder Scrolls Online[3]. XCOM is the reference point for this genre, so naming it in the announcement says most of what the pitch intends.

After $49.99, one more till at $9.99

The PC price is $49.99, identical on Steam and the Epic Games Store[2]. The Deluxe Edition Upgrade, listed on Steam as appid 3701350, costs $9.99[7]. Add the two and the total lands on $59.99, which is what the Deluxe edition sells for outright, so choosing Standard now and upgrading later carries no penalty. That decision can wait.

What the $9.99 opens is cosmetic from top to bottom. The Grand Army of the Republic pack carries a Republic officer uniform along with 100th Clone Company and ARC Trooper armor sets, the Shadow Collective pack carries a Pyke helmet and five tattoos, and five weapon set themes round it out[7]. Nothing on that list changes combat performance.

There is no battle pass, no season pass, no in-game currency and no randomized item. Steam, the PlayStation Store and EA’s own pages leave no room for any of them[2][5][8]. That absence removes the entire question of published odds. Free-to-play games covered elsewhere on this site start with the arithmetic of how many pulls guarantee one specific character, and here that arithmetic never begins.

Consoles ask for more. The US PlayStation Store lists $59.99 for the standard edition, $69.99 for deluxe and $10.00 for the upgrade[8]. PlayStation Plus members see $53.99 and $62.99 next to the first two[8]. Against the PC prices that is a $10 gap in both tiers, which is worth checking first for anyone who owns both machines.

A subscription route runs alongside the purchase. EA’s official page announces that the game is on EA Play Pro[5], and EA’s membership page prices that tier at $16.99 a month or $119.99 a year, with day-one access to premium editions of selected new releases among the benefits[9]. The same page notes that a membership selection applies to one platform only, so the choice of machine happens before the subscription does[9].

One physical edition exists. The EA press release puts the Collector’s Edition at $299.99, with a Star Wars Zero Company themed Hasbro Black Series Thermal Detonator, a steelbook and a desk mat inside[3].

Fifty gigabytes, and the first ten hours after that

The install asks for 50 GB[2]. Minimum specification is an Intel Core i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 2600X, 16 GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 1080, Radeon RX 5600 XT or Intel Arc B580, and that configuration targets 1080p at 30 frames on the low preset[2]. The recommended tier moves to an i7-10700K or Ryzen 7 3700X, 32 GB of RAM and an RTX 3080 or RX 7800 XT, aimed at 1440p and 60 frames on high[2]. RAM is the one line that settings cannot rescue, since 16 GB is the floor. Windows is the only platform, with macOS and Linux unsupported[2].

The first task after sitting down is assembling a roster. Steam’s description invites players to build a team from operative archetypes running from scoundrels to astromech droids and even Jedi[2], and Hawks himself is built by choosing a combat class and an appearance[5]. Taking the same operatives out repeatedly matters, because EA’s page states that squadmates learn to work together and unlock new combat synergies that decide fights[5]. Continuity of roster turns into performance.

What the hands learn is sequencing. Moving one operative changes which lines of fire open for the enemy, and the store description warns in advance that those choices accumulate into different outcomes[2]. That is as far as verified detail goes today, because no official figure states how many hours a campaign takes.

Accessibility is documented on the storefront rather than buried. Color alternatives, individual volume controls, difficulty adjustment, subtitle options, save anytime and playable without quick time events all appear in Steam’s category data[2]. Reflexes are not the axis this game competes on.

Language deserves a check before the download starts. Interface and subtitles cover Korean, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese and the major European languages, while full voice support exists in English and German alone[2]. For a story-driven game with this much dialogue, that limit is worth knowing in advance.

Ratings sit at ESRB T with Violence and Mild Language, PEGI 16, Korea’s GRAC 15 and Taiwan’s CSRR C12[2].

2,820 negative votes out of 13,701

Steam’s own tally comes first. Read on September 3, 2026, the game holds 13,701 user reviews, 10,881 positive and 2,820 negative, summarized as Mostly Positive[10]. Roughly one player in five pressed the negative button. That number counts votes Steam collected from its own buyers rather than scores borrowed from review outlets, and outside scores are not reproduced here.

The tags players attach most often run Turn-Based Tactics, Turn-Based Strategy, Sci-fi, Singleplayer and Strategy[6]. Steam’s genre field, by contrast, records Adventure, RPG, Simulation, Sports and Strategy[2]. Sports has nothing to do with this game and is metadata noise, so anyone judging the genre from a search result will come away with the wrong picture. EA’s own page names two genres, Strategy and Sci-Fi[5].

No mobile version exists. The Steam build is Windows only[2], and searches on the App Store and Google Play return nothing for this title. Anyone looking to continue a session on a phone stops here.

Buying today, or waiting out another week

Three kinds of buyer will do well. The first wants a game that stops asking for money after the first transaction. The second already enjoys waiting turns and has played XCOM or something adjacent to it. The third likes Star Wars but would rather never open a probability table again.

Three others should hold off. Anyone whose first question is whether a friend can join has no entry point, since neither co-op nor versus exists. The same applies to players who need a voice track in their own language, to PCs with less than 16 GB of RAM, and to anyone shopping for something to play on a phone.

Where there is a choice of machine, price settles it. PC costs $49.99 and console costs $59.99 for the identical game, and the Deluxe tier can be added later at no extra cost, so Standard is a safe starting point today. Anyone who plays several EA titles in a given month can also rent the question for $16.99 and decide afterward.

Three questions remain open. How many hours a campaign runs, whether any paid content beyond cosmetics is planned, and why the console version carries a $10 premium are all absent from every official page.

Sources

[1] Valve. Steam weekly global top sellers, week of August 25, 2026. Accessed September 3, 2026.

[2] Valve. Steam app details API, appid 2075800, US storefront. Accessed September 3, 2026.

[3] Electronic Arts. STAR WARS Zero Company Now Available On PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series Consoles. Press release, August 27, 2026.

[4] Valve. Steam concurrent players API, appid 2075800. Read at 19:39 UTC, September 3, 2026.

[5] Electronic Arts. STAR WARS Zero Company official game page. Accessed September 3, 2026.

[6] Valve. STAR WARS Zero Company Steam store page. Accessed September 3, 2026.

[7] Valve. Steam app details API, DLC appid 3701350, US storefront. Accessed September 3, 2026.

[8] Sony Interactive Entertainment. STAR WARS Zero Company on the US PlayStation Store. Accessed September 3, 2026.

[9] Electronic Arts. EA Play membership page. Accessed September 3, 2026.

[10] Valve. Steam user review summary API, appid 2075800. Accessed September 3, 2026.