In a significant development echoing across the gaming and tech industries, ZA/UM, the acclaimed studio renowned for its groundbreaking RPG Disco Elysium, has officially unionized. This pivotal moment, detailed in a discussion with GamesIndustry.biz, introduces the studio’s newly formed Workers’ Alliance, which has received voluntary recognition from management. This crucial step towards enhanced worker representation arrives as ZA/UM begins to showcase its eagerly awaited second game, the spy RPG Zero Parades, scheduled for a 2026 release.
“The more I’ve worked here, the more I’ve realised that what we have is a unique makeup of people, and the union is a large effort to solidify that,” stated union representative and UI/UX designer Declan Keane. “Instead of thinking about what the next year will look like, we’ll be working together, taking what we’ve learned already and doubling down on that. I want to play the games that this team makes.”
“We can exercise our legal rights should we need to,” added union representative and community manager Poppy Ingham. “But mostly so we can try and have the studio work as a collaborative project between the workers and management. We like being here. We want to continue being here. So let’s try and get a seat at the table in the big management meetings.”
The Workers’ Alliance is organized through the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, offering protection and representation primarily to ZA/UM employees in the UK. Ingham mentioned that the union’s meetings are also open to their colleagues located in Tallinn, Estonia, and Porto, Portugal. ZA/UM management has voluntarily recognized the union. “When we heard that the workforce was having discussions about unionizing, what we did as a management team was come together to talk about that,” said ZA/UM president Ed Tomaszewski. “And when we did talk about it, it was clear that recognizing a union was core to our values as a studio, to be providing fair working practices.”
Studio History, Layoffs, and Project X7 Cancellation
The move to unionize follows a period of significant turmoil for the studio. Tomaszewski and Ingham both disputed a critical characterization of ZA/UM made by former writer Dora Klindžić, who described it as a “cold, careless company where managers wage war against their own creatives.” In February 2024, Klindžić and fellow Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik were among 24 employees laid off following the cancellation of a spinoff codenamed Project X7. Ingham clarified, “I wouldn’t want to comment on Dora’s lived-in experience, because it’s very, very different to my experience.”
According to a June 2024 report, current and former employees described a studio struggling with rapid expansion from 30 to about 100 people after the success of Disco Elysium. The studio was further impacted by the contentious departure of key senior talent, including creator Robert Kurvitz. In the years that followed, a sequel to Disco Elysium and a sci-fi RPG project were canceled, with the studio shifting focus to Project X7, Zero Parades, and Disco Elysium Mobile.
Project X7 was reportedly hampered by a confused and stifled development process, lacking a preproduction period and clear leadership. Despite these challenges, a build of the project was well-received during an internal showcase in late 2023, but it was canceled two months later. The subsequent layoffs reduced the company to “between 40 and 60 staff,” though ZA/UM has since appeared to have rehired, bringing its employee count back up to “around 90.”
ZA/UM’s current project, Zero Parades, is a spy RPG that shares stylistic similarities with Disco Elysium, featuring dialogue-driven gameplay and skills that communicate with the player. Meanwhile, departed writers Klindžić and Tuulik have announced a limited edition art book and dev diary to formally announce the first game from their new studio, Summer Eternal, set to ship next summer. Red Info, the studio formed by artist Aleksander Rostov and writers Helen Hindpere and Robert Kurvitz, has not yet announced its project.