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...
