Several key members of Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM have left the studio, it’s been revealed by founding member Martin Luiga. ZA/UM is working on a successor to the 2019 Game of the Year contender, and will cause fans of the original concern for the fate of that project.
Alongside Luiga, Disco Elysium lead designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere, and art director Aleksander Rostov all left the company at the end of 2021, with Luiga describing this as “involuntary”. Rostov has confirmed the trio’s departure in a tweet signed by all three.
In his post on Medium (first spotted by Nibel on Twitter), Luiga described this moment as the “dissolution of the ZA/UM Cultural Association”, saying that the studio “no longer represents the ethos it was founded on.”
In a thinly veiled response to a comment on his post, Luiga blames this shift on ZA/UM’s investors, who managed to “manipulate dozens of people to steal, in the end, from themselves,” though does acknowledge that this investment was probably key to the studio’s continued existence..
A spokesperson for ZA/UM issued a statement in response to the news, though basically says nothing of substance:
Like any video game, the development of Disco Elysium was and still is a collective effort, with every team member’s contribution essential and valued as part of a greater whole.
At this time, we have no further comment to make other than the ZA/UM creative team’s focus remains on the development of our next project, and we are excited to share more news on this with you all soon.
Originally released for PC in 2019, Disco Elysium was enhanced and came to consoles in 2021, and a stunning example of narratives within video games. In our 10/10 review of Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, Gamoc said, “The story is absolutely captivating, the world is filled to the brim with detail, and the characters and their motivations are remarkably well thought out. […] Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is a masterwork and you are doing yourself a disservice if you miss it.”
