Transformers: Reactivate was originally teased at The Game Awards 2022, only to never be heard from again. Yesterday, Splash Damage announced the sci-fi multiplayer shooter had been canceled, potentially resulting in cuts to the studio after Hasbro pulled out of the project. Now, in-development footage of the upcoming game has leaked and it actually looks pretty damn neat.
Little was known about Transformers: Reactivate beyond that it was going to be a squad-based shooter about saving Earth from an unknown threat. There was supposed to be a closed beta last year that never ended up happening. But X user DpzLuna had been tracking every scrap of info to come out about the secretive game since its reveal, and has now shared the first-ever footage of what the game looked like to play.
Transformers: Reactivate was being made in Unreal Engine 5 and the in-development footage shows Bumblebee exploring the ruins of what seems to be New York. The gameplay is that of a third-person shooter in a semi-open world. The most eye-catching part of the footage is that Bumblebee can transform between a robot and a car on the fly in what seems like a pretty seamless and satisfying animation to control. Traversal looks like it might have been a big part of Transformers: Reactivate, and it probably had the potential to play off of the core ability at the heart of the Hasbro toy franchise in interesting ways.
An executive for the company had previously said the game was shaping up well. Transformers: Reactivate would be a “milestone for Transformers in the next year or two” that “nailed the feeling of playing as a massive, bipedal robot,” senior VP of digital strategy and licensing for Hasbro, Eugene Evans, told Game File in early 2024.
Who knows whether the rest of the game around that core gameplay premise would have been fun or worthwhile. Making all of the disparate bits of game work together in a satisfying and worthwhile way is one of the biggest design and technical challenges of making any game, and maybe Transformers: Reactivate was ultimately canceled because it just wasn’t coming together, at least in a timeframe Hasbro was willing to foot the bill for.
“This decision did not come lightly, and it is a difficult time for the studio and our people,” Splash Damage wrote in its statement this week. “We want to take a moment to thank the team who worked on Transformers for their dedication and passion. Hasbro was an incredible and supportive partner throughout, and we hope to work with them again. To the many fans, your excitement and support helped keep us going.”
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