GamesRPGDisco ElysiumAfter forming a new studio at an “apocalyptic” time for game devs, Disco Elysium writer says “this industry is finished” but “video games are not"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGDisco ElysiumAfter forming a new studio at an “apocalyptic” time for game devs, Disco Elysium writer says “this industry is finished” but “video games are not"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: ZA/UM)
Like most of thelayoffsthat have tormented the video games industry over the past year, when ZA/UM cut the plannedDisco Elysium expansionalong with many of its developers' jobs, it was devastating. Fans couldn’t believe that ZA/UM wouldn’t want to sustain an RPG as poignant as Disco forever. Its developers, however, are well-versed with how callous video game execs can be. They won’t let that stop them.
“I think this industry is finished,” said Disco Elysium writer Dora Klindžić in a recent interview withVG247. “But, fortunately for everyone, video games are not.”
Earlier in October, some former ZA/UM employees — including Klindžić and fellow Disco writer Argo Tuulik — announced the new studio Summer Eternal. According to its website, Summer Eternal promises to be worker and player owned, and to “push back against Big Tech’s encroachment on the territory of our art.”
Sounds good. And everyone seems on board — Summer Eternal organizer Aleksandar Gavrilović, for example, agrees with Klindžić’s suggestion that Summer Eternal isn’t a cure. It’s a salve for the pockmarked games industry, coming from within that same industry.
“I myself ascribe to the accelerationist view that the only way to achieve better conditions is to enter crises which underline the contradictions of society and force us to remake the world,” he says.
But, before reinventing the world, Summer Eternal has to work on its unnamed first game. Klindžićtells VG247that fans shouldn’t expect another Disco Elysium.
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“We will work as artists do, which means both eyes on the work, not one on the audience and not one on the competition,” she says.
A spiritual successor to Disco Elysium that’s “continuing a legacy” of RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, and Icewind Dale is in the works from Bungie, Rockstar, and ZA/UM veterans.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
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Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”