New details are emerging about the slow and painful deaths of followers of RPG masterpiece Disco Elysium, one of which we’re now learning would be the “hardest disco since Disco.”
In a lengthy and often heart-wrenching interview with PC Gamer, current and former ZA/UM Studio employees described the creative vision and internally well-received demo for the now-cancelled standalone expansion to Disco Elysium, codenamed X7, an executive decision. this reportedly led to its demise, layoffs affecting most of its development team, and the aftermath of it all. The entire write-up is worth your time, but what struck me the most was how former X7 lead writer Dora Klindžić described the canceled project, which would have been spearheaded by Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik.
“It was something that no one but Argo could do, and it would be 110% authentic, the hardest disco since Disco,” Klindžić said, adding that X7 “would push the story, the emotional threads and the gameplay elements. At once, it would really develop the genre psychological RPG, as Disco Elysium began… For a while, it seemed that miracles were possible, and with them, redemption.”
PC Gamer’s sources say that the X7 began development in 2022 and could possibly be ready for release in 2024 or 2025. An internal demo was given to other teams at ZA/UM, most of whom were impressed by what they saw. “Everyone was looking forward to its development,” said one of the ZA/UM developers. “His internal announcement lifted a lot of spirits after a rough period of bad press at the studio.”
Developers ZA/UM also thought that X7 was “just the kind of game [the studio] needs to be put out,” at the time he thought it might “reassure fans that ZA/UM is not a shell, that the IP is in safe hands, and that the studio is full of talented people with a true love for the world of Revachol.”
Management eventually scrapped the project and laid off most of the development team in February, despite clear assurances from ZA/UM president Ed Tomaszewski in December 2023 that the studio’s strong finances would protect them from the industry’s ongoing layoff crisis.
Despite universal acclaim in 2019, Disco Elysium is shrouded in a cloud of controversy that seemingly stems from the internal workings at the executive level of ZA/UM. After a bitter split between key creatives in 2022, fired developers Disco Elysium have traded serious barbs with the studio, with the former alleging fraud and the latter toxic management. With the release of a comprehensive 2023 documentary by People Make Games that deals with the company’s complex financial and legal situation, the story has become even more complicated.
PC Gamer’s story doesn’t reveal a single compelling reason for X7’s cancellation and studio layoffs, even from the perspective of the employees interviewed, but hierarchical obscurity seems to be one contributing factor. Klindžić and Tuulik put the project together and nominally served as development leaders, but neither was ever formally handed the reins.
Additionally, every developer PC Gamer spoke to who worked on X7 confirmed that the project was never allowed a proper pre-production period, an unprecedented hurdle that Klindžić said was tantamount to dooming the project from the start: “Whenever we raised concerns about of this and expressed that we needed more writers if the deadlines were to be met, we were accused of not wanting to do our job.”
The full truth about why we’ll never play X7, or the full sequel codenamed Y12, or the sci-fi game P1 led by Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender, may never fully come out. This latest splash of color will probably do little to dull the fan base that is forever thinking about what could have been, because what could have been sounds pretty cool.
There’s a good reason Disco Elysium made our list the best RPG when they were made.