Star Wars Zero Company launches August 27, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It’s a single-player turn-based tactics game from Bit Reactor veterans of XCOM and Civilization developed in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games, published by EA. $49.99 Standard Edition, $59.99 Deluxe Edition. Both available on Steam and the EA app.
The official star wars zero company pc system requirements are published and they’ve generated genuine surprise on the EA forums for a tactics game, the GPU floor is higher than most players expected. Here’s what you need and why the numbers are where they are.
The official system requirements
EA published four distinct hardware tiers:
Minimum — 1080p Low, 30 FPS:
CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, or Intel Arc B580
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 50GB SSD
OS: Windows 10 or Windows 11 (Windows 11 recommended)
Recommended — 1440p High, 60 FPS:
CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 50GB SSD
OS: Windows 11 recommended
The storage requirement is the pleasant surprise 50GB is modest by 2026 AAA standards. Halo: Campaign Evolved requires 100GB. F1 25 requires similar. A tactics game without open-world streaming assets and cinematic environments at every angle keeps the installation footprint reasonable.
Why the GPU minimum is higher than most tactics games
The EA forum question that surfaced immediately after requirements published was direct: why does a turn-based strategy game need a GTX 1080 at minimum for 1080p Low at 30 FPS? XCOM 2 from 2016 runs on a GTX 970. Civilization VI runs on a GTX 970. Zero Company’s minimum GPU is a GTX 1080 a card from 2016 that was considerably more powerful than either of those at launch.
The answer is in what Zero Company is doing visually that XCOM and Civilization aren’t. Zero Company uses a fully real-time rendered environment rather than a baked tile-based system. The isometric camera can pan, zoom, and rotate freely. Lighting is dynamic the same battlefield looks different at different times of day and under different weather conditions. Character models and animation fidelity are substantially above classic tactics games. The Unreal-based engine handling all of this while maintaining the cinematic presentation the developers emphasised throughout pre-release coverage demands modern GPU capabilities that a GTX 970 genuinely can’t provide at any reasonable frame rate.
The Arc B580 at minimum is notable. A 2024 GPU at the floor of requirements suggests the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set supported by the GTX 1080 and later is a hard dependency. Older DirectX 12 cards without Ultimate support may not be compatible even if their raw performance suggests they could run the game.
What hardware runs it comfortably
At 1080p targeting 60 FPS at medium settings between minimum and recommended the RX 9060 XT 16GB or RTX 5060 Ti 16GB are more than sufficient. Both cards are well above the GTX 1080 minimum and handle 1080p in far more demanding titles without strain. A turn-based tactics game with dynamic rendering is not pushing the same sustained GPU workload as an open-world action RPG at the same resolution.
At 1440p high settings targeting 60 FPS the recommended tier the RTX 3070 is the official floor. Current-generation equivalents would be the RTX 5060 Ti or RX 9060 XT for comfortable headroom, or the RTX 5070 or RX 9070 XT for the most comfortable 1440p experience with room for higher frame rates.
One honest note about tactics game GPU usage: the benchmark resolution and frame rate targets on a requirements list assume all graphical options at the stated tier enabled simultaneously. In practice, a tactics game’s GPU load spikes during camera pans across fully rendered environments and drops significantly during the turn-execution phase when the camera is locked on a specific unit. Average GPU utilisation in Zero Company will likely be lower than a comparable-tier action game at equivalent settings, meaning the recommended spec delivers more than 60 FPS in practice during typical gameplay moments even if it hits 60 FPS during the most demanding camera angles.
The offline play confirmation
EA confirmed Zero Company can be played completely offline with no required internet connection. For a single-player tactics game this should be the default expectation but enough EA titles have shipped with always-online requirements in recent years that the explicit confirmation is worth noting. No EA app login required during gameplay after initial purchase authentication.
The Deluxe Edition — what the extra $10 buys
The Deluxe Edition at $59.99 adds cosmetic content not yet fully detailed at time of writing. Pre-ordering either edition includes the Crystalline Astromech Cosmetic Pack. The standard edition is the correct purchase for most buyers there’s no confirmed gameplay content difference between editions, only cosmetics.
Both editions are available on Steam and the EA app. The EA app version may offer early access or additional integration with EA Play if you’re subscribed check current EA Play benefits before buying directly.
What this build looks like for Zero Company
If you’re building or upgrading specifically to play Zero Company at 1440p high settings smoothly, the component picture is accessible. A Ryzen 5 9600X at ~$175, 16GB DDR5-6000 at ~$200–$248, and an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB at ~$579 puts you well above the recommended spec at a total GPU cost that’s not demanding. Zero Company’s CPU requirement is modest even at recommended the Ryzen 5 5600X recommended spec means current-generation mid-range processors are dramatically overqualified.
The SSD requirement is simple: any current-generation NVMe SSD with 50GB free. No DirectStorage requirement is specified a quality SATA SSD is likely acceptable though an NVMe is the correct choice for any current gaming build regardless.