Update: the saga surrounding "Disco Elysium" spirals out of control (allegations of toxic workplace environment, verbal abuse, gender discrimination, and financial fraud)

[Brian]

[Paperclyp]

My initial reaction was that sucks, but it also kinda seems like exactly how it should go lol. 

[Moa]

I wonder who holds the Disco Elysium IP.

[Bloodporne]

Any interest in that sequel just went to zero. What a crying shame. That game is a marvel.

[Paperclyp]

1 hour ago, Moa said:

I wonder who holds the Disco Elysium IP.

The company ZA/UM

[Greatoneshere]

That sucks big time, wonder what's up. At the same time, I wonder who is left and how big their roles were by comparison to these peoples' roles.

[HardAct]

AND..........

    Yet another game I started playing [45min or so] and need to get back to and restart!!

[Brian]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

This situation has gotten really ugly:

 

Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM confirms former employees were fired for misconduct

WWW.GAMESINDUSTRY.BIZ

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Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM has confirmed a…

 

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Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM has confirmed an Estonian press report of mismanagement and misconduct among former senior employees to GamesIndustry.biz.

 

The reports follow news that three key members of ZA/UM – Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere, and art director Aleksander Rostov – had been dismissed from the company last year.

 

In an exclusive statement, ZA/UM detailed some of the reasons behind recent dismissals, but did not name any specific individuals.

 

The studio said the dismissed employees had limited to no engagement in their responsibilities and work, created a toxic work environment, demonstrated misconduct towards other employees including verbal abuse and gender discrimination, and attempted to illegally sell ZA/UM's intellectual property. More details are specified by the studio in the full statement below.

 

ZA/UM also confirmed that legal filings related to the former team are pending, but did not divulge further. Last month, Kurvitz filed a suit against ZA/UM via his company Telomer, to "obtain and review documents," though no additional details were given.

 

Speaking to Estonian newspaper Estonian Ekspress (translated by Google), ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus said the studio suffered from a "toxic environment," and accused Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz and minority shareholder Saandar Taal of "humiliating colleagues and intending to steal IP."

 

 

 

The "open letter to fans" from Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov, the fired Disco Elysium game director and art director:

 

TO FANS OF DISCO ELYSIUM, CONCERNING THE SITUATION AT ZA/UM | by Aleksander Rostov | Nov, 2022 | Medium

MEDIUM.COM

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(FROM ROBERT KURVITZ AND ALEKSANDER ROSTOV)

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We are Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov — the game director and art director of Disco Elysium. Our stake in the game exists in the form of minority shareholdings in an Estonian company called Zaum Studio OÜ, which owns everything related to the game. The majority of this company’s shares were initially held by Margus Linnamäe, an Estonian businessman and investor who provided the initial capital. In 2021, Linnamäe was bought out by another minority shareholder, an Estonian company Tütreke OÜ. Tütreke OÜ is a vehicle for two Estonian businessmen — Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel.

 

As minority shareholders our rights are limited. As long as Linnamäe remained the majority shareholder, we were confident that the company’s financials were in order and that all shareholders were being treated equally. The same can not be said for Kompus and Haavel. As soon as they became majority shareholders, we were quickly excluded from daily operations, our employment was terminated and our access to the company’s information was shut off. Our firing came weeks after we started asking for documents and financial data, which is still being kept from us.

 

We have now learned that Tütreke OÜ must have obtained control over Zaum Studio OÜ by fraud. We believe the money used by Tütreke OÜ to buy the majority stake was taken illegally from Zaum Studio OÜ itself, money that belonged to the studio and all shareholders but was used for the benefit of one. Money that should have gone towards making the sequel. We believe that these actions — which in our view, and the view of our lawyers, amount to criminal wrongdoing punishable by up to three years imprisonment — were perpetrated by Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel with support from Kaur Kender, another minority shareholder. This is hardly surprising given that Tõnis Haavel, who we believe to be the ringleader, has been convicted for defrauding investors on a different matter in 2007