The studio that brought us Disco Elysium (while it still had its founders and main creators in it) recently launched ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies, an “espionage RPG” letting you control a troubled agent on their final assignment. While the game received amazing reviews, including a 9/10 from us, it failed to reach any sort of commercial success, and the studio is now firing over 30 devs as a result.
ZA/UM announced this on Bluesky, saying that “up to 32” developers were served termination or “at-risk notices,” adding that it was forced to downsize because ZERO PARADES‘ poor commercial performance “has not enabled us to sustain a studio of our current size.”
The studio’s developers are part of the ZA/UM Workers’ Alliance union, so they do have some levels of protection in place for them, but it’s always sad to see so many hardworking artists lose their place in the industry for no particular reason.
