Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM has announced layoffs impacting up to 32 of its employees after new RPG Zero Parades: For Dead Spies suffered from disappointing sales. Disco Elysium fans are not surprised.
"Talented passionate workers, evil inept ownership," says one reaction to ZA/UM's announcement on Bluesky. In the years since adored RPG Disco Elysium launched in 2019, ZA/UM has managed to earn several lifetimes' worth of bad karma: it canceled a Disco Elysium sequel in 2022 and other Disco-related projects among the company leadership's downward spiral into finger-pointing, lawsuits, and an apparent hostile takeover from CEO Ilmar Kompus, who studio founder Robert Kurvitz accused of fraud. ZA/UM later underwent mass layoffs in 2024, and many of Disco Elysium's developers no longer work for the company. Instead, they splintered off into several new studios competing with each other in making the perfect Disco spiritual successor.
