Gaming YouTube channel People Make Games has released a massive two-and-a-half hour-long investigation into the legal battle over new-school PC gaming favorite, Disco Elysium, which has seen the game’s creative leads go to war with developer ZA/UM’s corporate ownership for control of the game and its future sequel.
The short version of the dispute is that three of the senior most members of Disco Elysium’s dev team, including Robert Kurvitz, who began crafting the setting 20 years ago, left ZA/UM on bad terms at the end of 2021. Those developers say they were forced out when they discovered a scheme by a trio of investors to steal the company out from under them, while the CEO they accuse claims they were fired for failing to meet basic obligations as developers and for creating a toxic work environment.
PMG spoke to all parties involved: not only the shareholders with claims to ZA/UM and the Disco Elysium IP, but 16 current employees, including four who went on the record and had interviews taped for the documentary.
Throughout the dispute, Kurvitz has presented his story as one of a punished artist struggling against anti-creative capitalists, but wheth…
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