Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM, the same team of developers now working on an espionage RPG in a similar vein to Disco Elysium, titled Zero Parades: For Dead Spies (which Wccftech recently previewed), have formed a union at ZA/UM's UK branch called the Workers Alliance, represented by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB).
The news was announced with a blog post on the IWGB Game Workers website and in an interview with ZA/UM developers on GamesIndustry.Biz. According to the IWGB, the Workers Alliance at ZA/UM UK is "the UK's first recognized games industry union."
"I think the workers at ZA/UM all agree that we have something unique at the studio that we want to preserve for years to come," Poppy Ingham, marketing manager at ZA/UM in the UK, told GI.Biz. UI/UX designer Declan Keane added "The more I've worked here, the more I've realized that what we have is a unique makeup of people, and the union is a large effort to solidify that. 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."
Following the release of Disco Elysium in 2019, a string of controversies followed ZA/UM, with the core creatives on Disco very publicly leaving the studio and claiming to have been ousted by ZA/UM's executive branch, with game director and writer on Disco, Robert Kurvitz, writing an open letter to players claiming the studio had been stolen from him and the rest of the studio's creatives in 2022.
Kurvitz also accused the studio's chief executive officer, Ilmar Kompus, of fraud. Kompus fired back with accusations against Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov that they created a toxic working environment at ZA/UM. Lawsuits were filed shortly after and are still ongoing to this day.
What followed in the wake were two extended documentaries from People Make Games that attempted to break down what happened at ZA/UM, three project cancellations, including a sequel to Disco being cancelled and an expansion for the original game that resulted in layoffs last year, and the founding of multiple studios each started by various members of the key creative team behind the original Disco.
Now, the remaining workers at ZA/UM, many of whom did work on the original Disco, but none of whom were the original key writers on the project, are hoping to ensure that ZA/UM remains a good place to work. While many former developers have had less-than-positive things to say about the studio and its conditions, Ingham and other members of the studio's union look to this formation as a step in the right direction.
"The hope for the future of ZA/UM is just to continue what we're doing, but in a very secure and comfortable position now that we have a union established, and to really challenge the studio and the studio's management in the best way possible, to make sure that we're putting ZA/UM out there as the best place to work in the industry - we take care of our staff, we have a union to push the things we require, and we can preserve the talent that we have here."
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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