At literally the exact same time that Disco Elysium-like RPG Hopetown—which has its own issues, believe me—released a new trailer, embattled Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM came in with the steel chair: A first teaser for its own follow-up game, codenamed project C4.
The teaser itself is pretty thin, but undeniably stylish and intriguing: It's all illustrations by Disco Elysium Thought Cabinet artist Anton Vill, a zoom through animated phantasmagoria that reminds me of a James Bond intro sequence. A narrator mentions psychological ideas reminiscent of Disco Elysium, but also "conspiracies" and "intelligence agents," referring to the player as an "operant." All of that indicates a bit of an espionage bent to me.
Speaking to ZA/UM employees about a canceled Disco Elysium expansion last year, I was told that project C4 is not set in the world of Elysium. Unless there were some major upheavals at the studio since last summer, whatever this game is, it's not Disco Elysium 2.
That might be surprising, given that game's near-universal adoration, but this is part of a long, arduous saga. Three key developers of the original game, including Elysium setting creator Robert Kurvitz, left ZA/UM in 2021 alleging financial malfeasance by studio management. That management in turn says the three were fired with cause.
Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik and his team were fired from ZA/UM last year with the cancellation of the Disco expansion they were working on. Tuulik, along with 11 other employees who had been or were still part of ZA/UM, alleged that the project was mismanaged and starved of resources by higher-ups at the studio.
All of that, understandably, has strongly aligned sentiment among Disco Elysium fans against ZA/UM. The comments under the trailer on both YouTube and Twitter are almost uniformly negative. I find myself somewhat conflicted between solidarity with those shafted by the studio, and wanting to give the artists still at the company—the vast majority of whom had no hand in the firings—a chance to be judged on their own merits.
Some of the developers I spoke to for the investigation last year—who were highly critical of ZA/UM and what happened to the team of the canceled expansion—are still at the studio, and want the chance to make a game they're passionate about. It's also not like the industry is in a great state for them to pack up and find an opportunity somewhere else with the ongoing layoff crisis.
ZA/UM also still hosts members of the original Disco Elysium team, including writer/editor Justin Keenan and artist Anton Vill, whose work was so prominently featured in both Disco and the C4 trailer. But ZA/UM has an uphill battle to somehow win back fans wary of the studio after all the drama—the hardcore partisans are probably unreachable at this point—or carve out a new fanbase somehow blissfully unaware of everything that's transpired so far.
