The last writer who worked on the original Disco Elysium and was fired from ZA/UM said he believed the company “will always be a one-game studio,” with the layoffs reportedly being made as part of the cancellation of expansion packs. For the competition.
As explored in a documentary released by People Make Games last May, 2019 was a tumultuous time for the studio staff who released this very unique and interesting detective game.
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Now, according to a report from GLHF, ZA/UM is planning to lay off 24 employees in the area after the studio canceled its standalone Disco Elysium expansion. The project, codenamed X7, is reportedly “one to two years away from completion” and if canceled it would appear on ZA/UM’s project list alongside a Disco Elysium sequel and an unnamed new sci-fi game middle. In recent years it has either been abandoned or suspended.
In a separate report, two X7 contributors, Argo Tuulik and Dora Klindáiça, said: Tuulik, the last Disco Elysium writer remaining at the studio, discussed the current climate at the studio and stated that he felt the work The studio “will always be a single game studio”.
“The individuals of the cultural movement ZA/UM leave the group behind like a king cobra slithering out of its dead skin,” he said. “Remember, we promised: Un jour je serai de retour près de toi.”
Klindíi, meanwhile, told GLHF that “the last two months at X7 were filled with tension, burnout and conflict,” and likened joining the studio in 2022 to “being born in Yugoslavia in the ’90s.”
The report describes a meeting hosted by ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus, his brother-in-law Tõnis Haavel, and studio president Ed Tomaszewski, where the cancellation of X7 and layoffs were announced. Human Resources then reportedly sent letters to affected employees, which Tulik said told them “each employee will be assigned a score based on objectively applied selection criteria, with those with the lowest scores being put on the chopping block.”
Clindescarron; Regarding the layoffs and problems at X7, he also claimed: “Many of the people who were most affected and complained about working conditions ended up being the targets of today’s layoffs.”
We at iGamesNews have contacted ZA/UM regarding these reports and will update this article as soon as possible if/when we receive a response or ZA/UM issues a public statement.