Matt Wales
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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 Swedish gaming content agency 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.