After watching the explosive documentary on Disco Elysium's legal battle, I can't fathom how Disco Elysium 2 will ever be made
pcgamer.comGaming YouTube channel People Make Games has released a massive two-and-a-half hour-long investigation into the legal battle over new-school PC gaming favorite, Disco Elysium, which has seen the game's creative leads go to war with developer ZA/UM's corporate ownership for control of the game and its future sequel.
The short version of the dispute is that three of the senior most members of Disco Elysium's dev team, including Robert Kurvitz, who began crafting the setting 20 years ago, left ZA/UM on bad terms at the end of 2021. Those developers say they were forced out when they discovered a scheme by a trio of investors to steal the company out from under them, while the CEO they accuse claims they were fired for failing to meet basic obligations as developers and for creating a toxic work environment.
PMG spoke to all parties involved: not only the shareholders with claims to ZA/UM and the Disco Elysium IP, but 16 current employees, including four who went on the record and had interviews taped for the documentary.
Throughout the dispute, Kurvitz has presented his story as one of a punished artist struggling against anti-creative capitalists, but whether or not that's true, the video is as unflattering to Disco Elysium's ousted creatives as it is to the executive who pushed them out—longtime collaborators at ZA/UM are highly critical of the former leads and wearied by the ongoing turmoil. Kurvitz maintains that this is all a tactical distraction designed «to create division between workers.»
In addition to the 12 ZA/UM employees who remained anonymous, PMG spoke to multiple named employees. Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik wrote iconic characters and scenes in Disco Elysium like Cuno, the Hardie Boys, and the
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