Disco Elysium Producer Fired From ZA/UM; Scandal Continues
The scandal at Estonian studio ZA/UM continues. Martin Luiga has announced that another person has involuntarily left the ranks of the team responsible for Disco Elysium. This time it was the game's producer, Kaura Kender.
Some time ago we informed that Robert Kurvitz, the creative director of Disco Elysium, has sued the Estonian studio ZA/UM. The case he brought - its deadline is set for November 28, 2022 - is said to concern the rights to the intellectual property right to the game in question. These were allegedly unlawfully taken from the developers, who then involuntarily left the ranks of the team.
So far, such a fate has befallen three people - the aforementioned Robert Kurvitz, Helen Hindpere (the game's head writer) and Alexander Rostov (art director). It turns out that someone else has recently joined them, namely Kaura Kender, executive producer of Disco Elysium.
The news of his dismissal was announced on Twitter by Martin Luiga - co-founder and secretary of the ZA/UM cultural association, who left the studio's ranks some time before the scandal was publicized (you can read more about it in an interview with Luiga). He cited an article by Sulev Vedler from the Estonian website Eesti Ekspress, which describes the whole incident more extensively (available here for a fee).
At the same time, Luiga noted that currently full control of ZA/UM and the Disco Elysium IP is held by Ilmar Kompus, who is in charge of finance, and Tonis Haavel, the game's other executive producer alongside Kender. Interestingly, according to Luigi, the latter has recently been claiming all along that he has no stake in the company, although all of its employees know that the opposite is - and has been - true since its inception.
The fate of the developers of Disco Elysium - as well as potential continuation of the game - may be decided on November 28, at the aforementioned court hearing.
