By now, the confusing and complex behind-the-scenes story of the Disco Elysium team feels like required reading for anyone who enjoyed the game. While the entire narrative is too dense to go into here, the long and short of it is that the primary creatives behind the game were forced out of the studio, with a lot of blame being cast from all directions afterwards.
They weren’t the only ones to be excised from the company, however, and another round of lay-offs and cancellations at ZA/UM, alongside a controversial ‘collage mode’ added to Disco Elysium, has audiences feeling cynical about the direction of the company. It’s in these conditions that the studio announced and eventually released the Disco Elysium mobile port.
What is the Disco Elysium mobile port?
Calling it a port doesn’t quite accurately describe what the game is. Rather than the same game everyone played on PC and console being made available on mobile, this is a condensed, and stylistically different game that takes the core moments from the game and reframes them – taking it from an isometric RPG to something more akin to a visual novel.
Why is it controversial?
Aside from the fact that the world of Disco Elysium was something made by people who were no longer at the studio ZA/UM and the ownership of it is controversial in itself, it’s the monetisation practices of the mobile port that have sparked discussion. This is a mobile game that’s advertised as being free to download, but not too long into the game, players will encounter a paywall that demands $9.99 in order to access the rest of the game. Many find that it’s the attempt to hide this price while marketing the game as free that makes it especially egregious.
What does it mean for the behind-the-scenes drama?
Ultimately, the release of the mobile port is significant in how it’s the studio’s first major attempt to move forward without the Disco Elysium creatives on-board. While they have another, much more major, game in the pipeline under the codename of C4, the reception of the mobile port will mean that ZA/UM have a high bar to vault if they want to win people over again. This is at the same time as several other studios are trying their hands at their own ‘Disco-likes’ with one, Rue Valley, recently getting approval from Disco designer Robert Kurvitz himself.
