ZA/UM doesn't want 'to invite too many comparisons' to Disco Elysium with new game Zero Parades—'We didn't feel like we wanted to repeat our greatest hits'

A screenshot of Zero Parades key art from the September 2025 Sony State of Play gameplay trailer. A short-haired woman in a bright red trench coat looks toward the viewer. A collage of gloomy black and white heads surround her with an orange background peeking through at the bottom.

Seven years on from Disco Elysium's release and we are once again getting a game with the ZA/UM studio name on it. Zero Parades is a CRPG spy thriller that—when I played its demo a few weeks ago—felt very Disco-Elysium-shaped indeed.

Which is weird, because when our Wes Fenlon chatted to principal writer Siim Sinamäe at this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC), he said the studio doesn't want "to invite too many comparisons" to its predecessor.