Za/Um, the studio behind Disco Elysium, whose developers are now working on a spy RPG titled Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, has officially formed a union.

The union, called the Workers Alliance, was formed at Za/Um’s UK subsidiary and is represented by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB). The news was announced through a blog post on the IWGB Game Workers website and in an interview with Za/Um developers published on GamesIndustry. According to the IWGB, the Za/Um UK Workers Alliance is the first officially recognized video game union in the United Kingdom. Poppy Ingham, Za/Um’s UK marketing manager, told GamesIndustry that all employees agree there’s something unique about the studio that they want to preserve for the future.

“The more I’ve worked here, the more I’ve realized how unique our team is, and the union is a major step toward preserving that. Instead of wondering what the next year will look like, we’ll work together, building on what we’ve already learned. I want to play the games this team makes,” said Declan Keane, UI/UX designer.

After the release of Disco Elysium in 2019, a series of major events shook the studio. The game’s main creators publicly left Za/Um, claiming that the management had removed them. Robert Kurvitz, the game’s director and writer, wrote an open letter to fans, alleging that he and the other creators had been “robbed” of the studio in 2022. Kurvitz also accused CEO Ilmar Kompus of fraud, to which Kompus responded by accusing Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov of creating a toxic work environment. Shortly after, a lawsuit was filed — one that remains ongoing to this day.

Following these events, People Make Games released two in-depth documentaries exploring what had happened at Za/Um. These included the cancellation of three projects — among them the Disco Elysium sequel and an expansion for the original game — which led to layoffs last year, as well as the founding of several new studios by members of the original creative team. The employees who remained — many of whom had worked on the original game, though none were lead writers — hope Za/Um will continue to be a good place to work. While many former developers have spoken negatively about the studio and its internal conditions, Ingham and other union members see this as a crucial step in the right direction.

“Our hope for Za/Um’s future is to keep doing what we’re doing — now in a much more secure and stable environment thanks to the union. We aim to challenge the studio and its leadership to make Za/Um the best workplace in the industry. We take care of our staff, we have a union to advocate for our needs, and we can retain the talent that works here,” they said.

Hopefully, the scandals surrounding the company will eventually fade away.

Source: WCCFTech, IWGB, GamesIndustry