Disco Elysium studio has reportedly canceled a standalone expansion to the beloved RPG as potential layoffs loom

This is said to be the third ZA/UM project canceled or put on hold since 2022

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A new report suggests that the threat of dozens of layoffs looms at ZA/UM, as the studio has canceled the development of a standalone expansion to its beloved RPG Disco Elysium.

GLHF at Sports Illustratedreports that ZA/UM has canceled a project known internally as X7, which would’ve been a standalone expansion to Disco Elysium. According to the report, studio president Ed Tomaszewski told staff the project was “one to two years away from completion” and might have taken “more time and effort than Disco Elysium did.”

The report suggests that ZA/UM also canceled a full Disco Elysium sequel in 2022 and put development of a “new sci-fi IP” on hold in 2023. Two new projects, one of which is still connected to the Disco Elysium IP, are said to remain in development.

“With the cancellation of X7 we are proposing to reshape our team to support our two remaining games,” CEO Ilmar Kompus told employees in a message published by GLHF. “This adjustment will almost certainly lead to redundancies, mostly affecting the X7 team but also our non-development teams and non-X7 projects.” The report estimates that around 24 employees are at risk of being laid off.

While Disco Elysium was heralded as an instant classic upon its release in 2019, the story at ZA/UM has been fraught with controversy thanks to a messy split between the studio and some of its creative leads in 2022.Allegations of fraud and toxic management flew back and forthbetween the two parties, and the story only seemed more complicated in the wake of anextensive documentaryin 2023 from the folks at People Make Games. Whatever the truth of the situation, reports like this don’t paint an inspiring picture for the studio’s fortunes.

Thanks to fans, Sacred and Terrible Air, a novel set in the same world as Disco Elysium, finally got its English translation last year.

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He’s been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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