Disco Elysium ‘spiritual successor’ in development at new video game studio | Games

A new developer, Longdue, is being set up to develop a “spiritual successor” to the award-winning 2019 computer role-playing game Disco Elysium.

The new studio currently comprises 12 people, including some who worked on the original game and on its cancelled sequel, and former staff from Bungie (Destiny, Halo) and Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption). Its debut game is described in a press release as “a psychogeographic RPG” that “explores the delicate interplay between the conscious and subconscious, the seen and unseen. Set in a world where choices ripple between the character’s psyche and environment, players will navigate a constantly shifting landscape, shaped by both internal and external forces.”

The Bafta-winning Disco Elysium, which has you playing a depressed alcoholic detective in a city whose inhabitants still bear the scars of a war that took place decades previously, is regarded as one of the best computer RPGs ever made, and has spent several years at the top of PC Gamer’s list of the 100 best PC games. Its uncompromising writing runs the gamut from racism and socialist politics to philosophy, psychology and creative swearing, and its intelligence and willingness to discomfit the player earned it a fiercely passionate community of proponents.

The future of Disco Elysium has been unclear for years due to a series of disputes at its developer, ZA/UM. Several key staff, including lead designer and writer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere and lead artist Aleksander Rostov, claimed to have been ousted against their will in 2022; the company claimed that they had been fired for misconduct. Years of mud-slinging and several lawsuits followed, which were resolved in 2023, but ZA/UM laid off a quarter of its remaining staff early this year. A sequel and an expansion to Disco Elysium were at one stage in development at ZA/UM, but both have now been cancelled.

Longdue has not specified exactly who from Disco Elysium’s original team is working on its new game, though it has said that Rostov and Kurvitz are not involved.

The narrative director is Grant Roberts, formerly of Bungie and Rocksteady. “At Longdue, we’re inspired by decades of classic RPGs, from Ultima and Wizardry, through Fallout and Planescape, to the justifiably adored Disco Elysium,” he said. “We’re excited to continue that legacy with another narrative-first, psychological RPG, where the interplay between inner worlds and external landscapes is the beating heart of the experience.”