Former employees of ZA/UM, the studio behind Disco Elysium, announced they are pursuing legal action – alongside claims of fraud.

Previously it was reported that they had left “involuntarily” from the company, most of which were key staff. Now they claim the new majority owner of the studio defrauded them.

In a new blog post, former members Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov gave their statement on the matter. They claim they were defrauded by Tütreke OÜ, a company which now owns a majority stake of ZA/UM.

“As soon as they became majority shareholders, we were quickly excluded from daily operations, our employment was terminated and our access to the company’s information was shut off,” the developers wrote. “Our firing came weeks after we started asking for documents and financial data, which is still being kept from us.”

The ex-developers noted they are also planning on pursuing legal action, which also includes trying to bring criminal charges as they also write, “We are now in the process of reviewing our legal options. Both civil claims and criminal charges are on the table — in Estonia and the United Kingdom.”

When Disco Elysium launched back in 2019, it became a popular hit while also winning notable awards such as multiple BAFTA awards. If what they claim is true, then it sounds that Kurvitz and Rostov, among many others, were not able to gain much from the game’s success.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut has been available for Windows PC, Mac (via the Epic Games Store, GOG, Steam, and the App Store only on Mac), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. In case you missed it, you can find our thorough review for the game here.