The future for Disco Elysium 2 is not looking great. Martin Luiga, an editor on Disco Elysium, has revealed on a Medium post that three lead developers have left the game’s developer ZA/UM since the end of last year, saying that this seems like “bad news for the loving fans that are waiting for the Disco sequel.” This includes lead designer Robert Kurvitz, who wrote the novel the game is based on; Helen Hindpere, one of the lead writers; and Aleksander Rostov, the lead artist who stylized the game with its signature oil-painting motif.
Lead developers apparently fired in an “involuntary” fashion
Rostov confirmed in a tweet that he and the other two developers mentioned are no longer at the studio, while Luiga stated that their leaving was “involuntary” in a Medium post. The fact that this has taken more than ten months to be revealed suggests a lot of turmoil behind the scenes. According to several sources with Kotaku, ZA/UM has tried to keep the situation quiet. Reportedly, the internal announcement of Kurvitz’s departure included a threat of possible legal action against him.
In a reply to a comment on the post, Luiga suggests further that the executive producers, Tõnis Haavel and Kaur Kender, were at fault for the firing, pointing that out that Haaval was once convicted for investment fraud in Estonia.
While we may never know the full details on why these three lead developers left, it doesn’t bode well for a sequel to Disco Elysium, which received a high 9/10 on PSLS. Luiga still hopes, though, that players will get the sequel “the way it was meant” even if it may take “a s*** ton of time” to complete now. A PS4 version of the game was released in March 2021.
