New details are emerging about the slow and painful death of the successors to RPG masterpiece Disco Elysium, which we now learn was said to have been the “most hardcore disco since Disco.”
In an extensive and often heartbreaking interview with PC Gamer, current and former ZA/UM Studio employees described the creative vision and internally well-received demo for the now-canceled standalone expansion to Disco Elysium codenamed X7, the executive decision-making organization that would have led to the its demise, the layoffs that affected most of the development team, and the aftermath of it all. The whole article is definitely worth reading, but what struck me most is the way former X7 head writer Dora Klindžić described the canceled project, which would have been helmed by Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik.
“It was something that no one other than Argo could have done, and it would have been 110% authentic, most hardcore Disco since Disco,” said Klindžić, adding that would have brought. at once to truly evolve the genre of the psychological RPG the way Disco Elysium started it… For a while it seemed as if miracles were possible, and with them redemption.”
PC Gamer’s sources say that development of X7 began in 2022 and could likely have been ready for release in 2024 or 2025. An internal demo was passed on to other teams at ZA/UM, most of whom were impressed with what they saw. “Everyone was looking forward to developing it,” said one ZA/UM developer. “The internal announcement brought great encouragement after a difficult time of bad press in the studio.”
ZA/UM developers also thought that X7 was “just the kind of game [the studio] should release,” thinking at the time that it “could reassure fans that ZA/UM is not chaff, that the IP is in safe hands and that the studio is full of talented people with a genuine love for the world of Revachol.”
Ultimately, management canceled the project and laid off most of the development team in February, despite clear assurances from ZA/UM president Ed Tomaszewski in December 2023 that the studio’s strong finances would protect them from the industry’s ongoing layoff crisis.
Despite receiving universal acclaim in 2019, Disco Elysium has been shrouded in a cloud of controversy seemingly stemming from the inner workings at the executive level of ZA/UM. After an acrimonious split between key creatives in 2022, fired Disco Elysium developers traded serious barbs with the studio, with the former alleging fraud and the latter toxic management. The story got even messier with the release of an extensive 2023 documentary from People Make Games, which delves deeply into the complicated financial and legal situation at the company.
PC Gamer’s story doesn’t reveal any conclusive reasons for X7’s cancellation and the studio’s layoffs, even from the perspective of the employees interviewed, but hierarchical ambiguity appears to be a contributing element. Klindžić and Tuulik pitched the project together and nominally served as development leads, but neither was ever formally given the reins.
Furthermore, every developer PC Gamer worked with on When we said we needed more writers if we wanted to meet deadlines, we were accused of not wanting to do our job.”
The full truth about why we’ll never play This latest splash of color will likely do little to dull the sting of a fanbase constantly wondering what could have been, because what could have been sounds pretty awesome.
There’s a good reason why Disco Elysium makes our list best RPGs ever made.