Things aren’t going so well over at the ZA/UM, the developers of Disco Elysium.
Disco Elysium came out in 2019 and quickly became a quirky fan-favorite title that topped charts as one of the best games of the year. A new edition, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, was later released last year that added full English voice acting along with several other quality of live improvements. This all but guaranteed that ZA/UM would bring everybody back for a sequel.
Although a follow-up is indeed in the works, ZA/UM might want to take its sweet time with its development.
According to the industry insider, Nibel, ZA/UM “involuntarily” fired the key individuals that were behind the first game: Robert Kurvitz, Aleksander Rostov, and Helen Hindpere. Rostov later made a statement on Twitter to confirm this, while ZA/UM also addressed the recent departures in statements sent out to publications such as GamesRadar.
We confirm that we are no longer at the studio.
— Aleksander Rostov, Robert Kurvitz, Helen Hindpere
— Aleksander Rostov (@artofrostov) October 2, 2022
While it’s only fair to give ZA/UM the benefit of the doubt, you can’t help but worry.
As the lead designers, artists, and writers behind Disco Elysium, losing the trio will impact the quality of the sequel. It will be interesting to see how well it will do, especially now that it’s faced with much heavier expectations than the first time around.
There’s little doubt that the people over at ZA/UM can pick up the slack. The only question is, can the sequel retain the core identity of Disco Elysium? We’ll have to wait a couple of years to find out. Until then, we can look forward to the Disco Elysium film adaptation that will be produced by DJ2 Entertainment with help from Amazon.
