Creators of Disco Elysium in Legal Battle Over Ownership of Their Studio

[Husky_Khan]

Late Stage Capitalism or something... being Marxists, the Devs should've seen this coming... or maybe due to being Marxists... they never saw it coming.

The first set of players in this fight includes Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov, the key creatives behind Disco Elysium, and Kaur Kender, who acted as executive producer and marketing manager on the game. All are partners in Studio ZA/UM.

On the other side are Ilmar Kompus, the director and largest shareholder of Studio ZA/UM, and Tõnis Haavel. The Estonian Ekspress newspaper(opens in new tab) describes Haavel as a "smooth-talking ex-banker who was convicted of investment fraud in 2015 and received a seven-month suspended prison sentence." He was also an executive producer on Disco Elysium.

The allegations around Disco Elysium and ZA/UM come from a hearing held in Harju County Court in October, Estonia's largest county court. At this time, there are claims and counter-claims, but none of it has been settled.

The Estonian Ekspress reports that the problems began when Margus Linnamäe, who largely financed Disco Elysium and was ZA/UM's largest shareholder, decided to sell his stake in 2021. There was an expectation that Linnamäe would split his shareholding among the partners, but he allegedly sold it all to Kompus.

Kurvitz and Rostov did not know about this at the time. Their suspicions were raised when they were apparently demoted internally and, after checking the Estonian registration of companies, realised that control of ZA/UM now belonged to Kompus. The pair allegedly began demanding answers, shortly after which they were sacked. Both still own minor shareholdings in ZA/UM.

Long story short, ZA/UM, the studio behind Disco Elysium, had some guy named Margus Linnamae who was the companies biggest shareholder. He decided to sell his stake in 2021 and sold it all to Ilmar Kompus behind his partners back instead of splitting it amongst said business partners.

Not being a lawyer or businessperson, maybe that's just being an asshole... BUT THE PLOT THICKENS.

There were some sketches, specifically four concept art sketches for the sequel, that are apparently worth anywhere between 1 to 4.8 million Euros.

At the hearing, Kurvitz and Rostov argued that Kompus had used money that should have gone to the studio and shareholders, and funded Disco Elysium's sequel, in order to buy those $4.8 million sketches. This was the alleged sleight-of-hand.

The shell company Tütreke, controlled by Kompus, somehow acquired these four sketches (described as being for a game called Pioneer One), and allegedly paid exactly one pound sterling for them before re-selling to ZA/UM for €4.8 million. This amount is what was apparently used to buy Linnamäe's large stake, and put it in the hands of Kompus.

So its being argued that the funds were being raised through the use of a shell company selling sketches of game concept art which funded the buyout.

BUT WHY??? Didn't they have a good thing going for them?

Why? Money of course.

Kompus allegedly hoped that ZA/UM and Disco Elysium could be resold quickly. The hearing heard that suitors including Microsoft and Tencent were tempted, while Amazon studios was interested in making a TV series set in the world.

But there remained a problem: Robert Kurvitz is the creator of Disco Elysium, still owns a piece of it, and has the right to block any acquisition. Those IP rights overall are however held by a ZA/UM UK subsidiary, the head of ZA/UM UK being Ilmar Kompus (he owns a fifth of this company).

Gotta sell that IP quick before it loses value!

It actually gets more complicated/hilarious so... feel free to check out the article in its totality.

The Legal War Over Disco Elysium Reaches Disco Elysium Levels of Complexity - PC Gamer

 

[liberty90]

This is a pretty good game, by the way; Marxist stupidity present is rather subtle and can be interpreted differently; while the main story (murder mystery) is honestly interesting.

As to the conflict, ironic of course, yes.