Disco Elysium appeared almost out of nowhere in 2019 and immediately set new role-playing standards. No wonder fans have been dying for a sequel ever since – but one blog entry is causing many to frown with concern. It is said that several important developers left Studio ZA/UM involuntarily and are no longer involved in the next game.
We unravel the current rumors for you in this article and let you know as soon as there is news.
What happened?
Where does the information come from? The information comes from Martin Luiga, a founding member of the ZA/UM Cultural Association, the predecessor of the game development studio ZA/UM, so to speak. He has himself via Blog and Twitter commented on the dissolution of this association, stating that at least three key Disco Elysium developers have left ZA/UM as of late 2021 and that their departure was “not voluntary”. According to Luiga, these are:
- Robert Kurvitz, lead writer and designer
- Helen Hindpere, Lead Writer
- Alexander Rostov, Art Director
All three were instrumental in creating Disco Elysium and were responsible for the game’s unusual vision. At the EGX2022 fair, fans had already missed these developers, which makes Luiga’s information seem even more credible. As a reason for the separation he writes:
link to Twitter content
The money people have a background that tells them you have to grab it when you can, even though it doesn’t really make much economic sense.
What does that mean for the next game? The sequel to Disco Elysium is currently in the works, which has not yet been officially confirmed – but we would be very surprised if ZA/UM Not would continue to work on the lucrative brand. However, Steffi hopes that it will not be a direct sequel:
more on the subject
Why Disco Elysium is impossible for me to continue
According to Luiga, he assumes that development will continue, he writes: »The sequel is progressing well enough, you might even get the version they intended. It might take a lot of time, but RPG fans are used to waiting.”
How are the fans reacting? But many fans are very concerned about the project on social media. They fear that Disco Elysium 2 could be very different without the three central developers of the predecessor. Under a Tweet from industry insider Nibel, for example, many write that they no longer want to buy the sequel. on Reddit meanwhile, numerous posts like this pop up:
link to Reddit content
Of course we have already sent a request to the developers, if we get an answer we will add it here.
