ZA/UM resolves legal dispute with Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender [Update: Press release is incorrect.]

[delete12345]

The ongoing legal dispute between Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM and the game's producer Kaur Kender has been resolved.

ZA/UM studio has announced that ex-staffer Kender has repaid all debts owed to it.

Also, per a court order, Kender has repaid CEO Ilmar Kompus for legal fees from a lawsuit that was eventually withdrawn back in December. Additionally, he's divested all his shares in the games company.

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"I am thankful for the years of trust and cooperation with the team, which made Disco Elysium a successful project," said Kender. "After leaving my full-time role, I filed a lawsuit which I realized, after seeing the facts, was misguided."

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ZA/UM resolves legal dispute with Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Update, Thursday, March 23: ZA/UM studio h…

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The saga has now ended. This is a follow-up to this thread here:

Lead game designer of Disco Elysium is suing the studio ZA/UM News

On the official website of the Estonian court discovered a record revealing that Disco Elysium's lead game designer Robert Kurvitz (Robert Kurvitz) was suing Studio ZA/UM. We previously reported that the game's lead authors left the company at the end of 2021. Robert Kurvits filed a lawsuit on...

www.resetera.com

 

[Slim Action]

The original creatives dropped their lawsuit and are still out of the company, right? That was the actual issue for me.

 

[Wrexis]

"I am thankful for the years of trust and cooperation with the team, which made Disco Elysium a successful project," said Kender. "After leaving my full-time role, I filed a lawsuit which I realized, after seeing the facts, was misguided."

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EDIT: Different dude.

 

[Birds of Paradise]

So we will never get a sequel to the game right? That sucks so much.

 

[Patryn]

So we will never get a sequel to the game right? That sucks so much.

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You'll probably get a sequel, but it'll likely have a very different tone given all the major creatives, including the lead writer who conceived of the setting, have left.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

Sorry I'm apparently dumb, but what about Robert Kurvitz?

End of the day, literally the #1 thing I care about most is that the game's creator and world designer (and story writer) continues to have the rights to the IP and/or the ability to produce a DE2.

It seems that's.... not gonna happen?

 

[AuthenticM]

so did the creative team get the rights back to Disco? That's what they wanted to achieve, right? Didn't one of the writers come up with that universe when he was a teenager?

 

[arglebargle]

So we will never get a sequel to the game right? That sucks so much.

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my suspicion is the new owners want to milk it for all its worth but it will never be as good as DE becuase the people who conceived the world and wrote the story are no longer involved. also my understanding is the world was basically their life's work, so even if they do something else it likely won't have the depth of DE. very unfortunate.

 

[Ailanthium]

"Resolves legal dispute" is probably the right way to phrase it as a news outlet, but it sure sounds like the real headline should be "Kurvitz loses lawsuit and ZA/UM as a game studio is now, officially, dead in the water." Somehow I'm not surprised that the party with more funds in the bank won. I loved Disco Elysium with all my heart, and I'd still like to think the original creatives can come up with something new and exciting, but it's a one-and-done franchise for me. Seeing what happened to the series' creators is too heartbreaking to even consider giving the company another cent on a sequel.

 

[Slim Action]

so did the creative team get the rights back to Disco? That's what they wanted to achieve, right? Didn't one of the writers come up with that universe when he was a teenager?

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Seemingly not, the creatives' lawsuit (which as I understand it is a separate lawsuit from the one covered in the OP) has been dropped.

So the actual story is "the company cleared its financial troubles (but we still forced the original creatives out, the ones who created the entire setting from scratch and made the first game what it is, please continue to support us!)"

 

[jay]

Yeah, it's over.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

As terribly sad as it is - it fucking sucks - holy shit could you not fictionalize a more fitting ending for the franchise considering DE's story and lore.

 

[BaconHat]

Glad at least one of the ppl fucked over by the owner got a happy ending, through it does not change the fact that the creatives that created the entire setting still lost their life work and won't get it back.
Man, this situation still stings as much at when i first heard about it.

 

[SinnyIndonesian]

This is about the stolen money, right? So that part is resolved(and it basically confirms the heads of the current studio are thieves), but the issue of them pushing out the creatives and replacing the studio with new hires will remain unsolved. We'll never see a true sequel.

 

[Budi]

so did the creative team get the rights back to Disco? That's what they wanted to achieve, right? Didn't one of the writers come up with that universe when he was a teenager?

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It started as a homebrew D&D campaign and Rober Kurvitz, the lead writer for Disco, also has published a novel in the same setting. I probably should stop expecting that getting translated at this point either.

The original art collective ZA/UM has been fucked over still.

 

[jay]

I wonder if the original leads could change the proper nouns and modify things just enough to skirt lawsuits and continue making games. May be hard tof ind a publisher willing to take that gamble, though. Hopefully there was no master Elysium Bible written up and given to the ZA/UM execs.

 

[Tace]

As someone who completed DE recently and absolutely adored it, it sucks the creators got pushed out of their life's work. I'll never get to see a true version of Jamrock

 

[cvbas]

OP is kind of burying the lede. The Kender stuff is one thing, the Kurvitz/Rostov is another. However, Kurvitz and Rostov also dropped their lawsuit -- as is stated further in the GameBiz article. According to ZA/UM, due to "lack of evidence".

The good thing is that in resolving the lawsuit, Kender got Kompus (another producer and now CEO) to repay ZA/UM the money he took (stole, according to some) off the studio. So that's a win.

Still, it's over for Kurvitz I think. This sucks.

 

[Joeschmo]

It started as a homebrew D&D campaign and Rober Kurvitz, the lead writer for Disco, also has published a novel in the same setting. I probably should stop expecting that getting translated at this point either.

The original art collective ZA/UM has been fucked over still.

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I swear I saw somewhere that the translation of the book is still happening. This was right when all this legal stuff started happening. Who knows though.

 

[Marco_Tovarich]

I wonder if the original creatives dropped their lawsuit because they've joined a different studio that didn't want to have ongoing litigation involving their employees. One can dream.

 

[cvbas]

I swear I saw somewhere that the translation of the book is still happening. This was right when all this legal stuff started happening. Who knows though.

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I think it was Martin Luiga who said there's still a chance.

But I wouldn't get my hopes up, to be honest. If it didn't happen before shit hit the fan (despite all the promises) I doubt it will happen now.

 

[Noisepurge]

You'll probably get a sequel, but it'll likely have a very different tone given all the major creatives, including the lead writer who conceived of the setting, have left.

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Similar situation to Telltale then after the writers of Walking Dead Season 1 left to create Campo Santo and made Firewatch.
So Za/um will make Disco Elysium 2 but to a much less critical acclaim, while the writers and designers will make something entirely new.

Gotta follow the people, not the company.

 

[AuthenticM]

sounds like the saga is not over. delete12345

ZA/UM resolves legal dispute with Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Update, Thursday, March 23: ZA/UM studio h…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Update, Thursday, March 16: Robert Kurvitz and Sander Taal have issued a response to ZA/UM legal dispute and have described the matter as "deeply misleading" as a directly concerned party.

In a statement sent to GamesIndustry.biz, Kurvitz and Taal (the latter being an alias for Aleksander Rostov, according to ZA/UM) said the press release is false in multiple areas. The pair maintain they are the remaining minority shareholders of the studio.

The developers explained, "The press release implies that our employment claims against the studio were withdrawn for lack of evidence. They were not. We see our dismissal as part of a larger campaign against us and will pursue legal options accordingly."

The statement adds that they disagreed with Kender admitting the lawsuit he withdrew in December 2022 was misguided.

"Kender's lawsuit was based on the misuse of ZA/UM's funds (€4.8 million) by the majority shareholders [Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel] to increase their own stake in the company. In the press release, Kompus and Haavel admit to this misuse, arguing only that the money has been 'paid back to ZA/UM,' " the duo explained.

"Paying back stolen money, however, does not undo the crime; here, it does not undo the majority that Kompus and Haavel have illegally gained in ZA/UM."

Additionally, they described that, unlike Kender, they will not be silenced in this ongoing legal dispute.

"Unlike Kender, we have not participated in the looting of ZA/UM, and Kompus and Haavel have no power over us."

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[OmniStrife]

The Pale consumes all.

 

[Budi]

sounds like the saga is not over. delete12345

ZA/UM resolves legal dispute with Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Update, Thursday, March 23: ZA/UM studio h…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Click to shrink...

I hope they keep fighting and come out victorious.

 

[cvbas]

sounds like the saga is not over. delete12345

ZA/UM resolves legal dispute with Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Update, Thursday, March 23: ZA/UM studio h…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Click to shrink...

Oh wow.

Fuck current ZA/UM.

 

[Hannibal Barbera]

Can I just say that it is amazingly dumb that Kompus basically admitted to doing the fraud but it's apparently okay cause he "paid it back" to the company that he now owns due to the misuse of those funds? Shouldn't that have like harsher penalties?

 

[wafflebrain]

sounds like the saga is not over. delete12345

ZA/UM resolves legal dispute with Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Update, Thursday, March 23: ZA/UM studio h…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Click to shrink...

I have no clue how this stuff works, does Kurvitz actually have a chance at getting the reigns to the IP back? Awful situation all around. Wouldn't be surprised if Kurvitz wouldn't wanna touch game dev with a barge pole again after all this.

 

[Zebesian-X]

Can't help but feel super cynical about the photo mode they announced today given… all of this

 

[EllipsisBreak]

Hypothetically, if Kurvitz and Taal successfully show that the current executives' ownership of the company is illegitimate, what happens?

 

[Deleted member 8750]

It sucks that it takes forever for legal disputes like this to resolve. Best of luck to them all.

 

[NightShift]

Good to know it's not actually over. I hope Kurvitz and Taal get what they're owed.

 

[.exe]

"Following Kender's suit withdrawal against Tütreke, the ZA/UM's majority shareholder, Kompus and Tütreke paid €4.8 million ($5.1 million) back to ZA/UM."*

* Paid back the money that they stole (allegedly, allegedly, allegedly 😉).

I'd love to read the full press release ZA/UM gave them. Did GI, Eurogamer, etc. just report it word for word? Did it also contain such fun euphemisms, or did GI invent them all on their own?

 

[Lowrys]

Reporting on legal matters and proceedings properly requires more than quoting from a press release by one of the parties. Gaming outlets need to do this sort of thing better.

 

[delete12345]

Thanks for the heads up, AuthenticM . Added threadmark, and requested thread title update.