Transformers: Reactivate
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 Yeah, yeah, get your "Deactivated" jokes out of your system. | |||||||
| Developer | Splash Damage | ||||||
| Platform | PC, consoles | ||||||
| Release date | Cancelled | ||||||
Transformers: Reactivate is a cancelled online multiplayer game developed by Splash Damage.
It was announced on December 8, 2022, at The Game Awards via a teaser trailer that didn't tell us a whole lot about the play style. A closed beta was planned to happen soon. Like some of the previous games, Reactivate was also going utilize microtransactions for in-game purchases (one of the only details given, never a good sign). However, due to an infamously troubled development cycle, nothing of the game was shown outside of that teaser afterwards, leaving many to question the state of the project, though multiple leaks from earlier builds of the game continued to surface.
763 days later, on January 8, 2025, it was finally officially announced that the game was canceled, with a portion of Splash Damage staff being laid off in the process.
Plot
Per the official site, "The gravest threat to humanity has arrived. And it's already won. Earth is no longer ours; it belongs to them. All we have left is our hope for the Autobots, as we salvage them from the rubble left behind."
Social media pages for the game tell fans to "fight back against the Legion", indicating the name of the game's alien occupiers.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Development history
The earliest work on Transformers: Reactivate began late in 2017, roughly around the end of Activision's exclusivity deal with Hasbro, though the actual development process was...tumultuous, let's say. Reports of the game's existence first emerged way back in 2018, when it was announced that Certain Affinity was working on a new Transformers game (tentatively known as Transformers: Impact and Transformers Online). In 2021, it was confirmed through members of the development team that the game had been retitled Transformers: Rise. It wasn't until the game's official trailer reveal in December 2022 that the final title was revealed, along with the shift in developer.
After another full year of radio silence, it was then announced in December 2023 that any further news on the game would be delayed until some unspecified time in 2024, due to the project being migrated to Unreal Engine 5[1] (something which Splash Damage had previously confirmed back in March at the Game Developers Conference[2]). This was the last official word on the game for a very long time, with 2024 coming and going without any further mention — although a hubbub was caused in June 2024 when the game's trailer was silently delisted from the game's official accounts, likely as a result of the license for the trailer's music expiring. The game's Instagram page was deactivated later that year.
The game was finally and predictably announced as canceled via Splash Damage's Twitter account on January 8th, 2025. Far more sobering was the accompanying announcement that the studio would be downsizing, leaving multiple employees jobless, a depressing end to the whole unfortunate saga of bad comedy.[3]
Toyline
Standing testament to the game's interminable development cycle is the troubled tale of its tie-in toys from Hasbro. The first public evidence of these products surfaced in early 2021, when store listings under the codename "Shine" (as in "rise and shine") for a pair of two-packs were first discovered.[4] The packs' Hasbro product numbers (which are broadly assigned in numerical order) suggested they were developed around the same time as 2021's War for Cybertron: Kingdom toyline, and a confidential slide leaked years later indeed confirmed that, at one stage, these figures were intended to hit shelves late that year.[5]
The packs were delayed from that planned 2021 launch, no doubt in the hope of still aligning with the release of Reactivate itself, but with the game's development continuing to stretch on, it seems Hasbro eventually grew tired of waiting and officially launched both packs in November 2023—although some retailers inadvertently listed the Starscream/Bumblebee pack a month early, complete with an out-of-date set of stock photography which depicted the products in a Transformers: Rise-branded box.[6]
The next year, and once again not in connection with any news or update on the game itself, Hasbro re-released the Bumblebee figure by itself in the Studio Series toyline's Deluxe Class assortment, as part of the line's "Gamer Edition" sub-branding.
| Reactivate | Studio Series |
Notes
- The game's now-unlisted teaser trailer featured a song cover of Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive", performed by Empara Mi and dreamchild.
- The game's key art features a billboard for Prim Cola, a piece of rubble with the EDC logo painted on it, and the head of the Statue of Liberty with the text "ARE ALL DEAD?" scratched into it.
- During the teaser trailer, Bumblebee scans one of the humans to compare her to an image of Marissa Faireborn in his database, suggesting a connection between the two.
References
- ↑ "We know that everyone has been patiently waiting for updates on TRANSFORMERS: REACTIVATE, however, we won't be revealing any new content this year. Your passion and enthusiasm powers our mission to create THE Transformers game fans have been waiting for, and we've now shifted to developing the game in Unreal Engine 5! Stay tuned for exciting reveals and epic developments in 2024!"—Transformers: Reactivate, Twitter, 2023/12/06
- ↑ "You might have just seen our logo and some of our key art, so... Transformers: Reactivate and Project Astrid are being built in Unreal Engine 5. Join us to help build those amazing worlds: https://careers.splashdamage.com #GDC #StateofUnreal"—Splash Damage, Twitter, 2023/03/22
- ↑ "Today, we have some very difficult news to share, the decision has been made to end development of Transformers: Reactivate. This means we will be scaling down to refocus our efforts on other projects. Unfortunately, despite every effort, a number of roles across the studio are now potentially at risk of redundancy. This decision did not come lightly, and it is a difficult time for the studio and our people. We want to take a moment to thank the team who worked on Transofrmers 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. While not being able to see the game through to release is painful, having to say goodbye to friends and colleagues hurts even more. We're now focused on doing everything we can to support them through this tough period, just as we are committed to caring for those who will staywith us as we build a stronger Splash Damage for the future. Thank you for your compassion and understanding."—Splash Damage, Twitter, 2025/01/08
- ↑ TFW2005 post from Jtprime17
- ↑ Leaked slide shared on Twitter by TFU.info
- ↑ Rise stock photos on TFW2005
