Report: Disco Elysium dev ZA/UM to lay off around a quarter of its staff, cancels new game

[John Elden Ring]

Around 24 employees are at risk of redundancy at Disco Elysium maker ZA/UM, according to GLHF sources close to the matter. This is roughly a quarter of the company’s current total workforce.

These cuts go hand in hand with the cancellation of a project codenamed X7, which we’ve been told was a standalone expansion for Disco Elysium. In a call with staff ZA/UM president Ed Tomaszewski said that X7 “was a game that was one to two years away from completion” and could’ve taken “more time and effort than Disco Elysium did.”

ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus informed staff of the cuts in a message read by GLHF, writing that redundancies will mostly affect “the X7 team but also our non-development teams and non-X7 projects.”

Groups at risk of redundancy were listed in a separate message seen by GLHF and named writers as well as engineers on the X7 project alongside 3D, 2D, and technical artists, production, IT, and animation employees company-wide.

According to our sources this is the third big project at ZA/UM to be canned or put on hold in as many years with a Disco Elysium sequel (codenamed Y12) being cut in 2022 and a game set in a new sci-fi IP (codenamed P1) being paused in 2023.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Brace for impact everyone, the big economy hit is coming!

 

[Sircaw]

Its pretty sad at people being let go left right and centre.