ZA/UM Cultural Association has dissolved (Group that later made Disco Elysium as ZA/UM, sequel still in dev but key figures have left)

[Kalor]

View: https://twitter.com/martinluiga/status/1576181520389193729?t=ufdp0PAH8VR1vPkgh1YqLQ&s=19

I, Martin Luiga, a founding member and Secretary of the ZA/UM cultural association, as well as the assembler of most of the core team, am hereby dissolving the ZA/UM cultural association (not to be confused with the ZA/UM company, on which subject I would note that neither Kurvitz, Hindpere nor Rostov are working there since the end of last year and their leaving the company was involuntary. Which would seem like bad news for the loving fans that are waiting for the Disco sequel.)

The reason for dissolving the cultural organization is that it no longer represents the ethos it was founded on. People and ideas are meant to be eternal; organizations may well be temporary. I find that the organization was successful overall and most of the mistakes that were made were contingent, determined by the sociocultural conditions we were thrown into. I still encourage people to organize, and I would say that one of the qualities that the ZA/UM cultural organization sorely lacked was pretty much any formal structure.

For a while, it was beautiful. My sincerest thanks to all that have rooted for us.

Click to shrink...

To summarise this was a organization that existed before the formal ZA/UM company, and has now dissolved. The company itself exists with a Disco Elysium sequel in development but some of the key people behind the first game seem to have been pushed out. Like Robert Kurvitz who was the lead writer and designer for the first game.

And some misc tweets that followed up on some details.


View: https://twitter.com/martinluiga/status/1576182809731149824?t=A3AcaxRZmQ2JWHG3C4ckNQ&s=19


View: https://twitter.com/martinluiga/status/1576194436597366784?t=HemrOf1WiIN9lzSDr8dhLg&s=19

 

[D O T]

 

[Kolx]

ofc a disco elysium sequel with the entire original team was too fucking good to be true.

 

[phonicjoy]

Man that is disappointing

 

[Fudus]

Disco Elysium sequel without Robert Kurvitz?..
Hope he doesn't disappear from the game industry.

 

[Otherist]

Very upsetting to hear Kurvitz, Helen Hindpere (writer on the original game and lead writer on the Final Cut expansion), and Aleksander Rostov (responsible for the game's iconic art direction) have all been pushed out.

Not to belittle the great work everyone else has done on both versions of the game, but this is no kind of fair outcome for the people who literally created this game and its world. There's a wealth of love and support for Disco Elysium out there, and at least some of that should be going to them...

 

[chaobreaker]

If the new head writer isn't the kind of person to give a shoutout to Karl Marx on the Game Awards then I have no interest in the sequel.

 

[Atolm]

Ew man this is the most disappointing indie news since Fez 2 cancellation, Disco Elysium is a master piece.

 

[coldsagging]

Gutted.

 

[Juan29.Zapata]

Absolutely depressing. This is pure greed.

 

[Skywalker333]

Sad news indeed. Certainly not uncommon in this (or any other) industry, but it is always sad when a new up & coming company is facing such an upheaval and it loses many of the people that were directly responsible for its initial success.

Meanwhile, last weekend at EGX, ZA/UM had a preety large booth promoting Disco Elysium, but also had a secondary booth with staff from the company inviting people for discussion, chat, coffee and also to discuss CVs and trying to hire people. I spoke with one of their staff managers there but I didn't hear any indication on any issues, they seemed genuinely excited about the next game they were working on!

 

[Kaswa101]

Damn man this is disappointing :(

 

[SirKai]

Even with all of the ideal odds, staffing, and potential momentum going into a DE sequel, living up to the first game is already a colossal prospect that feels unlikely. Without those key people? No fucking chance. This is devastating. I hope they can reform a new studio together to create a spiritual successor (or whatever else they might want to make).

 

[yalk_dx]

sad

 

[Kard8p3]

fuck

 

[apathetic]

Well damn. Reading the people that are "gone" makes it hard to not be disappointed and doubtful.

 

[BaconHat]

God frikking damn it!

 

[Messofanego]

So they got dodgy money people in the company? This is from a Martin Luiga reply on that Medium post.

Imagine a kleptomaniac, if you will. Only that instead of stealing, say, "A Lolly pop", they take pains to manipulate dozens of people to steal, in the end, from themselves, just because they happen to be very proficient in that kind of an operation. It's what they always do, really. One of them was the first guy to be convicted for investment fraud in Estonia. All the same, idk if we would have managed to get the initial investment without these people.​

 

[xir]

Ooc is it a global team or mainly Estonian

 

[D O T]

Damn, this is the most disappointing gaming news in a while, fuck.

 

[Mifec]

What a worthless fucking industry. Fuck.

 

[Deleted member 23046]

So they got dodgy money people in the company? This is from a Martin Luiga reply on that Medium post.

Imagine a kleptomaniac, if you will. Only that instead of stealing, say, "A Lolly pop", they take pains to manipulate dozens of people to steal, in the end, from themselves, just because they happen to be very proficient in that kind of an operation. It's what they always do, really. One of them was the first guy to be convicted for investment fraud in Estonia. All the same, idk if we would have managed to get the initial investment without these people.​

Click to shrink...

The guy who sided with them to fund and develop the game was a self made-man who was already driving luxury sports cars when they started, I guess he's talking about him. Beside that it can be complicated to transform a cooperative of artists into a commercial business because it's not for that people first regroup but more to share costs while staying relatively free in their jobs and collaborations.

 

[SinnyIndonesian]

This one fucking hurts.

 

[Bunkem]

If Kurvitz is gone then DE 2 will be DE 2 in name only (if it exists).

also, this is the worst fucking news.

 

[Dest]

This is some of the worst gaming news possible. Disco Elysium is the most important games not even of the last decade but of all time. This fucking sucks.

 

[cvbas]

I was thinking about making a thread on the subject a few weeks ago. Rumours of the leads leaving have been circulating for a while and it's a shame to see they were all true.

Hope Rostov, Kurvitz and Hindpere regroup and form a new company. ZAUM's next title was one of my most anticipated games, but my interest in it has plummeted. Will still check it out, but I'm not optimistic.

 

[HellBlazer]

Well, that fucking sucks.

I'm a bit confused, though. What is this Martin Luiga's role in the actual company and development of the game? First he says that the key people have left and that it's bad news, but then in the subsequent tweet he says that development of the sequel is in fact going well...? Also, um, I'm not sure if this is indicative of anything, but according to his signature on the Medium page, he's posting this from a psych ward...?

 

[Zebesian-X]

Fuck. Someone needs to approach the devs that got pushed out and offer them a blank cheque ASAP

 

[Kuro]

Damn the game will remain a one of a kind...

 

[Otherist]

We're talking about a game which relied entirely on having an enormous amount of very well-written text, and now both lead writers are gone. Short of a miracle, we can forget about the eventual follow-up being anywhere near as good.

 

[coldsagging]

Anyone who hasn't that has even the slightest interest needs to play Disco Elysium. Easily one of the best games I've ever played.

 

[BaconHat]

If Kurvitz is gone then DE 2 will be DE 2 in name only (if it exists).

Click to shrink...

It won't honestly. Losing the heads that made the entire product work, the team will probably peter off as time goes by.

Fucking industry.

 

[Chance Hale]

😭

 

[ze_]

Ugh. This game felt a miracle and a victory. This is gutting.

 

[dude]

Worst gaming news of the year.

 

[cvbas]

Very cool how my favorite band lost its frontman the same year my favorite studio lost its founder. Very cool.

😭😭😭😭😭😭

 

[thankyoumerzbow]

obviously its money people fucking them up

 

[Tonswelt]

Why can't we have nice things

 

[Zebesian-X]

obviously its money people fucking them up

Click to shrink...

Shoulda known this was coming the second they announced the Amazon Prime adaptation

 

[hydruxo]

What the fuck??? This sucks so bad

 

[DrFunk]

Something something capitalism fucking everything up

 

[duckroll]

Thinking more about this, it's disappointing and sad but did anyone expect otherwise? This is a team of hardcore communist anti-capitalist philosophy geeks who created a tabletop world for their own hobby. The game that they made out of it became a far bigger success than anyone could have expected, creating huge profit opportunity for future content. How do you reconcile this with the team's philosophy and outlook on life? You can't. It's fundamentally at odds and doomed.

 

[Morrigan]

That really sucks. Any interest I'd have in a sequel is minimal now.

Crystal Dynamics, hire Kurvitz for Legacy of Kain plz

 

[Neutrality]

Very cool how my favorite band lost its frontman the same year my favorite studio lost its founder. Very cool.

😭😭😭😭😭😭

Click to shrink...

Black Country, New Road?

 

[LinguisticGoblin]

Disco Elysium was too good for this shitty fucking industry and the leeches who run it. God dammit.

 

[Uzzy]

Well that sucks.

 

[rahji]

This is indeed bad news. At least we had Disco Elysium with all its glory.

 

[--R]

Man, we can't have anything good.

 

[RobertRaviolli]

Well, making a masterpiece with themes surrounding capital, and then leaving before the suits try to market it into the new big franchise in gaming is the most disco way possible of getting out

 

[Cecil]

It's of course sad new, but I never really counted on this game being repeated. I'm just glad for it being developed, released, being absolutely excellent and released on multiple platforms and DRM free on PC.