[News] The legal war over Disco Elysium reaches Disco Elysium levels of complexity

[-𝓣𝓐𝓚𝓘]

Something is rotten in the state of Revachol. This year has seen the gradual unfurling of a bitterly ironic real-world tale, one in which the creators of perhaps the best PC game ever(opens in new tab) have been cut out of the company(opens in new tab) they co-founded, Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM, and are now fighting for it in the courts.

How did it get to this point? According to one side, the answer is simple: four concept sketches of a man in a scarf, the first glimpses of a Disco Elysium sequel, which were allegedly bought last year for just over €1 by a shell company controlled by a ZA/UM executive, and then immediately re-sold to ZA/UM for €4.8 million.

The first set of players in this fight includes Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov, the key creatives behind Disco Elysium, and Kaur Kender, who acted as executive producer and marketing manager on the game. All are partners in Studio ZA/UM.

On the other side are Ilmar Kompus, the director and largest shareholder of Studio ZA/UM, and Tõnis Haavel. The Estonian Ekspress newspaper(opens in new tab) describes Haavel as a "smooth-talking ex-banker who was convicted of investment fraud in 2015 and received a seven-month suspended prison sentence." He was also an executive producer on Disco Elysium.

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-legal-war-over-disco-elysium-reaches-disco-elysium-levels-of-complexity/