Developer ZA/UM reportedly cancelled a standalone expansion to Disco Elysium back in 2022, said to be "one to two years away from completion" then, and the third project in as many years to be consigned to the endless void. Now, roughly a quarter of the studio is facing redundancy, which makes us want to put on sad disco music and contemplate the grim, seemingly inevitable fate that awaits all video game developers.
That's according to Swedish gaming content agency GLHF (thanks, Eurogamer), which claims that the cancelled expansion, codenamed X7, was the third such shuttering, with two other unnamed projects also being cancelled or put on ice indefinitely. If that wasn't bad enough, GLHF, citing "sources close to the matter", claims some 24 employees are facing redundancy. That's roughly a quarter of the studio's entire headcount, most of whom were reportedly on the X7 team. ZA/UM will instead refocus around two other in-development projects, known as C4 and M0 internally.
This sorry news follows years of messy, public legal spats between the creatives behind Disco Elysium and the suits who funded the thing. It's hard not to see the irony of it all; Disco Elysium deals with the death of art and artist expression in the face of grinding corporate interests and the futility of fighting against the inevitable. It's depressing stuff, but that's the world we live in and what inspired Revachol in the first place.
Can you believe we exist in a timeline in which a Disco Elysium expansion is seemingly cancelled out of hand? Is there any more relentlessly bleak RPG you can think of in recent years? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source videogames.si.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 11
What a game Disco Elysium is. Story, characters, music, atmosphere, so nostalgic about it all. Don't think there will ever be another one like it. Hopefully the original developers get the opportunity to create what they want to again.
Such a tragic ending. Just played through disco elysium over the last few weeks. An incredibly well written, intelligent, introspective story and commentary of the ills of human society.
I hope the talent that created this land on their feet under far less oppressive corporate rule.
Probably one of the best game I ever played. What a masterpiece. They pushed the concept of RPG so far that even a game like Baldur's Gate 3 looks pale in comparison. That said, not a game for everybody, it is very special and I can understand that people don't click on it.
Genuinely glad it’s not happening if it was going to be without the original creators. It’s such a fantastic microcosm of the current state of the world, they create an overtly leftist work that’s universally praised and then the suits try to co-opt it in an attempt to suck all the value they can from somebody else’s work.
An incredible game - my personal game of the decade. I didn't think it would be my thing and then it was which in turn
led me to buy Baldurs Gate 3 and Planetscape Torment as I searched for equally enthralling dialogue options and choice outcomes.
@nessisonett
Kinda telling about the viability of leftism in the real world eh?
I hope these guys get a chance to make another game under more favorable conditions.
I was kinda late to the party with DE, but as far as writing and voice acting goes it was a true revelation to the point of setting a new standard for games. It was all about the anodic HARDCORE!
Disco Elysium is such a great game. And this is a huuuuge understatement.
I sincerely hope that the people who ousted the writers and creatives behind this, dare I say, seminal RPG get hit by the karma they have sent out.
CONCEPTUALIZATION [Challenging: Success] - Maybe another studio can get inspired by Disco Elysium and create an incredibly well-written, thought-provoking and mature single-player experience like that set in a quasi-real world. It will take chutzpah but the precedent has been set.
@ZhuckelDror what an incredibly reductive thing to say. As if that means we should sit on the fence or not care at all.
I wish they had gone through with the original lawsuit so we knew more of what happened. So much he said she said it's hard to get through the mud to get to the truth of it all. I would have least hoped the ending might have the creator throw a cream pie in court, run for the door flipping everyone off and then break his collar bone on the frame.
Heart goes out to those made redundant after being part of something that means a lot to the fans. Hope they land on their feet and get another shot at it.
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