Disco Elysium Studio ZA/UM Reportedly to Lay Off 25% of Its Workforce as New Game and Expansion Canceled 

ZA/UM, the studio behind the 2019 critically acclaimed RPG Disco Elysium, is reportedly planning to let go a quarter of its workforce.

In a report by GLHF at Sports Illustrated, sources close to the matter claimed that 24 employees are at risk of redundancy at ZA/UM, which amounts to nearly 25% of the company’s workforce.

It also claimed that the cuts go hand in hand with a project codenamed X7, which was supposed to be a standalone expansion for Disco Elysium, being canceled.

ZA/UM president Ed Tomaszewski told staff that X7 was “one to two years away from completion” and could’ve taken “more time and effort than Disco Elysium did.”

An alleged message from ZU/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus was sent to the company and it states:

Dear all,

Despite concerted efforts over the past eight months by our management team and the X7 disciplines, following consultation with our management team, I have taken the difficult decision to cancel X7. This decision, unlike the pause on Project P1, will unfortunately most likely lead to redundancies within our studio.

With the cancellation of X7 we are proposing to reshape our team to support our two remaining games. This adjustment will almost certainly lead to redundancies, mostly affecting the X7 team but also our non-development teams and non-X7 projects.

We are approaching this sensitive issue with the utmost care and respect. We will be initiating a formal redundancy consultation procedure with employees of Zaum Studio Limited who are at risk of redundancy in accordance with UK law. If you’re one of these employees, you will very shortly receive a Slack message, email, and a calendar invite for a meeting with your Lead and HR to discuss the next steps. Any individual whose role is affected, but who is not employed by Zaum Studio Limited, for example those employed by Deel or in our other EU locations, will be contacted separately about the procedure that will be followed. During this transition period, let’s maintain professionalism and support each other, upholding our studio values.

Ed will provide more context during our campfire in two hours (invite will be sent shortly). We will also open our anonymous Q&A form which can be found here: [Link]

Regards,
Ilmar

The statement states that the job cuts will mostly affect the teams working on X7 as well as non-development teams and non-X7 projects.

It was also claimed that X7 was the third project at ZA/UM to be canned, while a sequel to Disco Elysium (codenamed Y12) was canceled in 2022 and the development of a new sci-fi IP (codenamed P1) was paused last year.

The report also states that there are two projects currently in development in the studio, namely codenamed C4 and M0, with the latter speculated to be related to Disco Elysium.

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