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.
