Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is out now. In another timeline, the first game to come out of ZA/UM since the award-winning Disco Elysium would be a huge cause for celebration, but considering the fallout at the studio over the past few years, controversy was unavoidable.
This all kicked off when Disco Elysium's lead writer, Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere, and lead artist Aleksander Rostov, were ousted from ZA/UM in 2022. There were more departures and layoffs, too, resulting in multiple new studios being set up, all of which are now working on their own "Disco Elysium successor". Whatever you think of the rest of these companies, the whole ordeal left many Disco Elysium fans with a negative opinion of ZA/UM itself, even if some original Disco devs are still there.
Now, ZA/UM has a new game to sell, and it's not going over great with the Disco Elysium community. Zero Parades has launched to mixed reviews on Steam, with many of the negative reviews referencing the behind-the-scenes controversies rather than anything about the game.
"You fired several core creative staff members before, and now you still have the f*cking nerve to claim this is the work...
