Disco Elysium, an RPG game from the ZA/UM indie studio in Estonia, emerged mysteriously but swept multiple prestigious game awards in 2019. Despite the accolades, ZA/UM’s path became rife with internal conflicts post-2019, leading to the departure of many founders and developers.
Years later, former Disco Elysium developers split into two new studios simultaneously. Longdue Games, based in the UK and founded by a team of 12, announced their spiritual successor to Disco Elysium with a teaser image released.
Similarly, Dark Math Games, also in the UK and founded by a team of 20 former developers, revealed their upcoming detective RPG game titled XXX Nightshift along with a teaser in a video clip.
Meanwhile, ZA/UM still exists but reportedly laid off about a quarter of its staff in early 2024, canceling the development of Disco Elysium’s expansion. The two key figures behind Disco Elysium, Robert Kurvitz, the writer, and Aleksander Rostov, the art director, went on to establish their own studio called Red Info in 2022, although no updates have surfaced since.
With the legacy of Disco Elysium now carried by four different strands, the future unfolds the fate of each lineage. Stay tuned to see the next chapter in this evolving narrative.
TLDR: Disco Elysium’s creators part ways, former developers form new studios with exciting projects in the making, while the fate of the game’s legacy remains uncertain.
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