Disco Elysium studio says lawsuits from former members have been resolved

The messy saga of Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM – which has been embroiled in a series of legal tussles relating to the involuntary departure of key team members in 2021 – has reached a new milestone, with the company announcing several of those lawsuits have now been resolved.

It’s a story that first made headlines last October, when ZA/UM founder Martin Luiga claimed Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere, and art director Aleksander Rostov had been fired following the company’s takeover by Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus (now ZA/UM CEO), and Tõnis Haavel, previously convicted of investment fraud.

Not long after confirming the news of their departure, Kurvitz and Rostov shared an open letter claiming Kompus and Haavel’s takeover of ZA/UM was fraudulent and that they were booted out of the studio while trying to discover more. Kompus and Haavel then fired back, insisting the former employees had been dismissed for “belittling women and co-workers”, creating a “toxic environment”, and “intending to steal IP”.