Not long after the launch of the critical darling Disco Elysium and its Director’s Cut, series creator Robert Kurvitz and writer Helen Hindpere were put on “a little break” to “cool down” following clashes with leadership, but after lead artist Aleksander Rostov was fired, it became clear the pair would never be returning to the studio.
In the wake of these layoffs, there was a mass exodus of talent from ZA/UM while a legal battle erupted between creatives and upper management, a public spectacle that ended with the last Disco Elysium writer to be laid off decrying that ZA/UM “will forever stay a one-game studio”.
Unsurprisingly, plans for Disco Elysium 2 were dashed, and from the ashes rose numerous spiritual successors with such cadence it felt as though we were hearing about a new game every week. One of which came from ZA/UM itself, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, but the sentiment around this new game is poisoned by the controversy it unfurled from. As my colleague Sam Hallahan put it, “If you’re a fan of Disco Elysium, don’t be excited for Zero Parades”.
So, when ZA/UM rolled out a Disco Elysium update to plaster ads for Zero Parades across the game, it wasn’t exactly met with enthusiasm.
“I Am Definitely Torrenting This Now”
“This studio literally stole the game from the original devs, and have now forced ads not only into the main menu, but also EVERY TIME YOU PAUSE,” said @ItsKKing. “No matter how much you hate ZA/UM, you don’t hate them enough.”
In fact, this new update has sparked several comments from fans who are now urging each other to pirate the game instead, refusing to give another cent to ZA/UM while also providing an avenue to avoid these jarring Zero Parades banners. “This game is genuinely one of the few instances where pirating it actually HELPS the devs who made it,” @LogVells argued. “F*ck ZA/UM for what they did”.
Zero Parades is poised to be a PR nightmare for ZA/UM to navigate, as even something as simple as advertising the game is proving controversial, but with such baggage weighing down the studio’s legacy and everything it does going forward, it was always going to draw ire from fans. As @sevenblades noted, “Zero Parades isn’t made by the same creative team as Disco Elysium,” so using its corpse to peddle a new game just doesn’t sit right.
- Released
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October 15, 2019
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs, Violence
- Developer(s)
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ZA/UM
- Publisher(s)
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ZA/UM
- Engine
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Unity
