Disco Elysium standalone expansion reportedly cancelled and quarter of staff facing redundancy at ZA/UM (2025)

UPDATE 19/2/24: Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM has now formally acknowledged last week's report of layoffs, following the cancellation of a standalone expansion to its game. The brief statement, below, makes no mention of the other issues raised.

"As with all studios, we adapt the size of our team to the work underway, growing when we start a new project and shrinking if one is cancelled," a spokesperson told VG247. "It is always hard to lose talented colleagues, and we thank those leaving for their many contributions to ZA/UM."

UPDATE 16/2/24: A follow-up report by GLHF has added further fuel to the fire engulfing troubled Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM.

Interviews with two named employees have been published discussing the circumstances behind the current wave of layoffs at the studio, with a third of staff reportedly set to be let go following the cancellation of a Disco Elysium standalone expansion.

In one startling quote, principal writer Dora Klindžić compared joining ZA/UM after its takeover by CEO Ilmar Kompus and his brother-in-law Tõnis Haavel to "being born into Yugoslavia in the '90s: you've just missed the party and now all you get is the bloodshed.

"The last two months of [the cancelled expansion] were rife with crunch, burnout and conflict."

ZA/UM is yet to comment on the report. Eurogamer has separately contacted the studio for more.

Fellow ZA/UM staff member Argo Tuulik, the last remaining writer to have contributed to Disco Elysium, has described how he and other staff affected by the layoffs discovered they were to be let go.

During a video call, the company bosses announced the project's cancellation and layoffs alongside a promise the developer was "nurturing intellectual growth, fostering a strong sense of community with our team". Shortly after, Tuulik said staff being laid off received a letter informing them that they would "have a score assigned to them based on objectively applied selection criteria and the lowest scoring people are gonna go on the chopping board".

Klindžić alleged that staff "impacted the hardest" by redundancies were those "who raised complaints about working conditions". The studio's perceived treatment of women and lack of female staff in senior positions is also highlighted.

"The fish starts rotting from the head, not the tail or the midsection," Tuulike said, likening the atmosphere at the studio now to "10 seconds before the Chicxulub impactor wiped out the dinosaurs. Gloomy."

ORIGINAL STORY 15/2/24:A quarter of Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM's total workforce - approximately 24 employees - is reportedly facing redundancy following the cancellation of a standalone expansion for acclaimed RPG Disco Elysium, said to be "one to two years away from completion".

That's according to Sports Illustrated's GLHF, which claims the cancelled expansion - codenamed X7 - was the third project to have either been canned or paused indefinitely by ZA/UM in as many years. A Disco Elysium sequel was reportedly cancelled in 2022 (complicating the claim, ZA/UM CEO was still talking about the project in June 2023, albeit saying it had been "jeopardised" following a messy tussle with its former creative leads), while a new sci-fi IP is said to have been paused in 2023.

GLHF, citing "sources close to the matter", says 24 employees at ZA/UM are now at risk of redundancy following X7's cancellation, with the job losses mostly affecting "the X7 team but also [its] non-development teams and non-X7 projects." Redundancies are set to impact employees in ZA/UM's UK offices as well as its EU studio, with writers, engineers, artists, animators, and staff in production and IT all affected.

ZA/UM boss Kompus insisted the studio was "approaching this sensitive issue with the utmost care and respect" in an email to staff seen by GLHF, noting that the redundancies are part of a plan to "reshape our team to support our two remaining games". GLHF says these projects are codenamed C4 and M0 internally, but shares no further information on what they might be.

ZA/UM first entered the spotlight after Disco Elysium launched to massive critical acclaim back in 2019. However, since then, the studio has mostly been in the headlines due to an extremely public legal spat with former key members of the Disco Elysium team. Beyond vague chatter about a Disco Elysium 2, the studio has not formally revealed any of its newer projects.

Eurogamer has contacted ZA/UM for comment on today's report.

Disco Elysium standalone expansion reportedly cancelled and quarter of staff facing redundancy at ZA/UM (2025)

FAQs

Disco Elysium standalone expansion reportedly cancelled and quarter of staff facing redundancy at ZA/UM? ›

A standalone expansion for Disco Elysium, codenamed X7, has reportedly been cancelled and a quarter of developers at developers ZA/UM are at risk of redundancy. Around 24 employees are said to be affected, according to "sources close to the matter" who spoke to Sports Illustrated's video games site.

What happened with Disco Elysium and Za Um? ›

Update: Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM confirms layoffs Update: Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM confirms layoffs. Workers at ZA/UM allege management is mishandling the Disco Elysium studio and mistreating its veteran staff.

Is Disco Elysium 2 cancelled? ›

A full sequel to Disco Elysium was canceled after Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere left the studio, and an unrelated sci-fi RPG was put on pause in 2023, but has since been cancelled. X7, a standalone expansion to the original DE, was canceled in February.

Why were the Disco Elysium creators fired? ›

The three contend that the company and valuable Disco Elysium IP were wrested away from them, while Haavel and Kompus allege that the developers failed to perform their duties and fostered a toxic working environment.

Can I fail Disco Elysium? ›

There are two checks in Disco Elysium that are hard-coded to fail. One can be found along the coast on the other side of the river. It's a door that Kim thinks leads to a wartime supply depot.

Why can't you kiss Kim in Disco Elysium? ›

When narrative designer Justin Keenan was asked "Why can't we kiss Kim?" a couple of years ago, he said "Because the thing about desire is that it's stronger when it's not totally satisfied". This new mode isn't just a direct contradiction of that statement, it feels as if it goes against what Disco Elysium is about.

Is Disco Elysium inappropriate? ›

As players progress through the narrative, they make dialogue and action-based choices that can lead to depictions of violence and/or blood: a character shooting herself; a woman lying in a pool of blood; a child getting shot; a man placing a gun in his mouth, then pulling the trigger off-screen; a man's bloodstained ...

Why was Disco Elysium banned? ›

The game was refused classification by the Board, making it illegal to sell in the country, due to its depiction of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, and violence, as well as showing "revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency, and propriety ...

Is Disco Elysium nihilistic? ›

Disco Elysium's well-crafted conversation system and nihilistic message resonates with frustrated millennials and Gen-Z, making it a popular hit.

How many endings are there in Disco Elysium? ›

There are six possible endings in Disco Elysium, two of which are only minor variations on other endings. These endings can be understood in Bodi and Thon's terms as prototypical narrative components: in-game cut scenes resulting from the complex series of player choices made throughout the game.

Why did Sylvie leave Disco Elysium? ›

During the events of Disco Elysium

At first, it was thought that Garte had contributed to her leaving by asking for her number, however, she denies it and if an Empathy check is passed, confesses that due to Harry's two-day drunken catastrophe, she left to get away from him as he was the worst client she had ever seen.

Was Disco Elysium a financial success? ›

Disco Elysium is a text-heavy role-playing game (RPG) about an alcoholic cop with amnesia investigating a murder in an alternative universe. Playing this strange and beautiful game, one can't help but wonder how it got made — much less how it became a mainstream hit, grossing over $70 million.

What happens if you take drugs in Disco Elysium? ›

Doing drugs, alcohol, or smoking each have benefits in the form of stat boosts, but damage your health. Abusing drugs and alcohol too frequently can lead you to being too unstable to complete the game, or even to your character's death.

What should I not sell Disco Elysium? ›

Also don't sell your pen. But you can sell postcards, and most of the items eventually stop being useful. Basically when in doubt, hold onto it until you're finished most of your quest log and are ready for the endgame, and even then you can make a hard save to come back to if you're worried.

Is it possible to run out of time in Disco Elysium? ›

There are no timed quests in Disco Elysium. The clock symbol next to a task in your journal does not mean it's “timed”. That is: do it by a certain time, or you will never get to do it. Rather, it means this task can only be done at after a certain time of day: after 21.00, after 23.00 etc.

Why did Zaum dissolve? ›

IGN's Twenty Questions - Guess the game!

The ZA/UM cultural association is different from the studio ZA/UM that developed Disco Elysium, and Luiga says that he chose to dissolve the cultural organization as it "no longer represents the ethos it was founded on."

Who bought Za Um? ›

Kurvitz and Rostov together claimed that Zaum Studio OÜ, the development studio, was originally owned in majority shares by Margus Linnamäe and was then acquired by Tütreke OÜ, a holding company owned by studio CEO Ilmar Kompus through a share purchase in 2021.

What happened to the people who made Disco Elysium? ›

Original (Feb. 16, 2024): GLHF reported yesterday that Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM planned on laying off around 24 workers and canceled its latest project, codenamed X7.

Is there a bad ending in Disco Elysium? ›

If Harry refuses Cuno's help, he will go to the Sea Fortress alone. Depending on choices made over the course of the game, this may lead to the bad ending. If Harry has remained completely sober and/or internalized the Waste Land of Reality thought, he will be allowed to return to Precinct 41.

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