Based on what was reported by GLHF, it appears that ZA/UM, the Disco Elysium teamboth in a somewhat critical situation, after that 24 team members were fired reducing the headcount of the entire team by a quarter, which would have led to cancellation of a new video game in development.
This strong reduction in personnel is accompanied by the cancellation of the new project in development called by the code name X7, which according to what was reported by the source in question would have been a sort of standalone expansion by Disco Elysium.
Something halfway between an expansion and a real new game, which in any case would still have required “one or two years to complete”, as explained by Ed Tomaszewski, president of ZA/UM, evidently too much for the team's needs .
A possible standalone Disco Elysium expansion canceled
According to the president, considering the time already elapsed and the time still expected, the processing would have required “more time and work than Disco Elysium” itself requested, apparently, which led to the decision to shut everything down.
According to what was reported by CEO Ilmar Kompus, the layoffs largely concern the team that was dealing with the X7 project but not only, given that they also include employees not directly employed in development.
According to GLHF, this would be the third project canceled by ZA/UM, after the direct sequel to Disco Elysium and a game with a science fiction setting. There are still two other projects in the works at the team, although the fate of the entire team is unclear at this point.
The ZA/UM team has gone through a very stormy period, with the departure of the team's founders and creators of Disco Elysium. After this case, the fired employees accused the company of fraud, while ZA/UM accused them of employee abuse, which resulted in legal action which later ended with the withdrawal of the case, as we explained in our special about what happened to ZA/UM. Evidently, the team's problems are not over yet.
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