Disco Elysium Devs Speak Out Over Toxicity And Death Threats

thegamer.com:

Disco Elysium devs who still work at ZA/UM have gone on the record with claims of toxicity against lead writer and director, Robert Kurvitz. They've also opened up on the abuse they've faced from the Disco Elysium fanbase since Kurvitz made claims against ZA/UM shareholders, with one developer receiving multiple death threats.

This all comes from an extensive investigation into the Disco Elysium situation, courtesy of People Make Games. In this two-and-a-half-hour documentary, People Make Games speaks to almost every main player in the ZA/UM controversy, including ordinary developers, who have gone on record with their claims for the very first time.

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The details in the video are far too complicated and wide-ranging to be explained here, but the issue of toxicity specifically refers to Robert Kurvitz's behaviour during the development of the first Disco Elysium. Here, he was a lead on the project, but the remaining ZA/UM staff say he was a toxic leader, and disagree with some of his claims since being dismissed from the company.

"I disagree with Robert's [Kurvitz's] version of events," says Argo Tuulik, one of Disco Elysium's writers who has known Kurvitz since the early 2000s. "The way it was presented was dishonest and manipulative."

This isn't the first time Kurvitz has allegedly misrepresented the situation at ZA/UM. When asked about Kurvitz's claim to have written 50 percent of the words in Disco Elysium, Tuulik replies, "I don't think that's true". "I've heard these crooked estimations from Robert [Kurvitz] before," he says. "I've heard worse ones."

This was far from his only issue with Kurvitz's leadership, however. Tuulik says that