Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM announces layoffs after Zero Parades flounders

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Published Jul 17, 2026, 1:53 PM EDT

ZA/UM says Zero Parades: For Dead Spies failed to perform commercially

A character holds a disc in Zero Parades key art.

ZA/UM has announced a round of layoffs today after the studio's latest game, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, failed to perform commercially. The studio is best known for developing the 2019 narrative role-playing game Disco Elysium.

The studio made the announcement in a post on Bluesky. ZA/UM says that while Zero Parades was released to critical acclaim, it's "commercial performance has not enabled us to sustain a studio of our current size. As a result, the studio has served redundancy and at-risk notices to 32 employees across all departments. Their work has made a lasting difference and left its mark on Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, and the studio as a whole," the announcement reads.

ZA/UM also says that during this process it has consulted with representatives from the studio's union, ZA/UM Workers' Alliance. While the layoffs will change the landscape of the studio, ZA/UM says it will not change its purpose: "We will persist." ZA/UM previously conducted layoffs in 2024, affecting up to 24 workers.

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies released this May as the highly anticipated follow-up to Disco Elysium. The espionage RPG retained much of the same narrative and mechanical hallmarks of the studio's debut title. Here's what we said about it in our review:

Zero Parades is an absolutely absorbing mystery that lies somewhere in the cross-section between geopolitical thriller, comedy of errors, and humanist tragedy. When it’s not trying too hard to retrace Disco Elysium’s signature, Zero Parades excels as a complicated story of a perpetual fuck-up desperately searching for redemption.

ZA/UM has itself been the subject of much controversy and discussion in the years since Disco Elysium's release. In 2021, a number of Disco Elysium's key creatives (including lead designer Robert Kurvitz) were ousted from the studio. This set in motion a series of legal battles, reports, and documentaries trying to unravel the story of what actually happened. The saga is ongoing, and it only seems to get more complicated with time. Zero Parades' development and release were enveloped by this controversy. Many fans saw buying the game and supporting ZA/UM's current leadership as a betrayal of the ousted employees. A PlayStation 5 version of Zero Parades is supposedly set to release sometime later this year.

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