A new documentary by People Make Games has delved even further into the murky underside of popular game Disco Elysium, to unveil… even murkier details.
We’re talking greed, toxic working culture, creators kicked out of their own brainchild, death threats, and a corrupt scheme to fraudulently take money from the company to… buy that company (how does that even work?).
The game itself is an absolute joy, with its dark, twisted plot, captivatingly flawed characters and unexpected twists and turns, all with an extremely unforgiving anti-capitalist message – yet what’s behind the scenes is this corrupt, Grabby mcGrabbington capitalist nonsense!
It’s something no outsider could have expected, really.
It’s also the most interesting and out there behind-the-scenes story we’ve heard about a game in a long time, so that’s something (and this is coming from someone who’s a huge fan of the game itself, and who has been watching on saddened that all of this was behind it).
Warning; there’s a hecka lot to unpick here, and for the sake of my own sanity we can’t go through it all with a fine-toothed comb, but it’s safe to say that this is why we can’t have nice things.
You can watch the full YouTube video here where you can catch up on every single gory detail to-date:
Some of the main points are below (a few of these you may already have heard about by now, as this has been an ongoing story).
Disco Elysium was developed under a toxic “mega crunch”
Working on Disco Elysium in the first place sounded like hell on earth. There was a toxic workplace culture, and unreasonable expectations forced on employees.
According to the game’s lead director, the game’s development “destroyed lives”. Another writer spoke up saying that it had “changed” people and hurt relationships.
“The last nine months of working on Disco… this was mega crunch,” stated Argo Tuulik, one of the writers at ZA/UM. “For nine months, I think I didn’t sleep at least one night [each week]. After this, everyone was so broken and burnt out.”
According to the original writers, Disco’s development was “utterly relentless” with “totally unrealistic deadlines” being the driving force for the crunch.
According to Kurvitz: “This created a really hellish rhythm of production. You know that it’s not going to be possible to release this really complicated CRPG in 11 months’ time. You know it’s not possible. You’re even saying it’s not possible. But you’re demanded to do it anyway.”
The original creators were terminated
Creators Robert Kurvitz, Aleksander Rostov and Helen Hindpere were ‘terminated’ from ZA/UM after the release of The Final Cut. This is what has prompted a lot of the legal quagmire that’s happening right now.
It’s been stated by ZA/UM they were fired for a whole host of reasons, including misconduct, discrimination, and exacerbating the toxic work culture mentioned above.
However, the trio have once again stated their roles at ZA/UM were diminished due to “fraudulent” deals with company shares, which wound up with CEO Ilmar Kompus being the majority shareholder by controlling more than 50% of the shares. Kompus still denies anything illegal or fraudulent took place.
The alleged €4.8m fraud
At the centre of this allegation (and the centre of most of the legal woes) are some drawings – reportedly of a man in a scarf – that were allegedly sold for just £1 to a ‘shell company’ owned by ZA/UM’s newly appointed (at the time) Estonian management.
These were then sold back to ZA/UM as part of a €4.8m deal, the proceeds of which were used to purchase control of the company. Both Kurvitz and Rostov have made claims this was indeed fraudulent.
Disco Elysium 2 is still (sort of) underway
We’re worried about this. The original creators aren’t involved, there’s a whole lawsuit and PR disaster, which begs the question… how can anyone still get behind this, as it stands right now? That’s if it ever gets anywhere after this absolute shitshow of a legal feud.
Developers who stayed on have received death threats
Some of the current employees feel like the situation has been actively misrepresented, and has left them open to abuse from fans – including death threats; not something anyone should have to deal with at their place of work.
This includes writer Kaspar Tamsalu, who said: “I personally received death threats and harassment online. I did message them about it and didn’t get a response. Since then, they’ve only leaned into this narrative.”
Petteri Solonen, Lead Technologist at ZA/UM, also chipped in with: “It’s understandable how the fans have responded. If I had been outside I’m pretty sure I would have responded the same way. But it has felt really unfair. It’s been stressful…we’ve felt completely helpless to counter it.”
The new ‘meme’ update got attention for all the wrong reasons
Back in March, Disco Elysium got an unexpected update in the form of a ‘collage mode’, which allows users to arrange the characters however they like, with extras like text and custom stickers.
You can even make Harry and Kim kiss, which was not the original intention of the writers.
Fans have been outraged by what they’ve seen as an attempt to distract from the current goings on and also go against the core anti-capitalist ethos of the game. Urgh.
This legal disaster is going nowhere fast
The current ongoing legal battle between ZA/UM leadership and Kurvitz is not looking like it’s letting up anytime soon – or that’s at least that’s certainly how it seemed at the time the People Make Games documentary was released (yesterday).
You can buy Disco Elysium: The Final Cut on Steam, or via Game (and a whole range of other places!).
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