Disco Elysium Developers Speak Out Against Alleged Toxicity at the Studio in Detailed Investigation

YouTube channel People Make Games has just released a detailed investigative report on the situation around Disco Elysium. The report contained various interviews with Disco Elysium developers. For context, the Disco Elysium situation deals with the ZA/UM controversy. Here former creative heads Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov along with former executive producer Kaur Kender are suing ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus and former executive producer Tõnis Haavel for illegally obtaining majority stakes in the company. Let’s check everything we know around this new investigative report around Disco Elysium here.

Disco Elysium investigation

The People Make Games investigation is thorough and contains a lot of details. One of the highlights of the report is the developers who have worked on Disco Elysium. The report examined their claims of toxic work culture that was fostered by former lead writer and director, Robert Kurvitz. One of the developers even revealed that they received multiple death threats from the fans ever since Kurvitz made claims against ZA/UM shareholders.

Argo Tuulik, one of Disco Elysium writers, shared his thoughts on the situation and said he does not agree with Kurvitz’s version of events. He said, “The way it was presented was dishonest and manipulative.” Kurvitz has also previously claimed that he wrote 50 percent of the story for Disco Elysium. Tuulik has claimed that it is not true. He said, “I’ve heard these crooked estimations from Robert [Kurvitz] before. I’ve heard worse ones.”

People Make Games also interviewed Kurvitz as part of the comprehensive report. He responded to the allegations of toxicity, saying, “I’m very sorry that not all relationships between people have survived this ordeal. It’s been very painful.” However, Kurvitz has disputed many of the allegations by developers against him. He did admit that working at the studio was difficult, even for him.

Kurvitz said he was working 12-hour days for five years, including working on the weekends to complete Disco Elysium. He said he was “spent” during this development period. “I know that a lot of people worked very hard on [the game] but we really do need a little bit of acknowledgement for what crunch and overtime meant for me and (art director Alexander) Rostov. There should be laws against it, how hard we needed to work – and there probably are.”

There are a lot of nuances covered in this investigation as People Make Games spoke with all sides involved. IGN India advises you to watch the complete report to get the full context behind these statements and more.