ZA/UM, the studio behind Disco Elysium, has announced a round of layoffs after its follow-up title, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, failed to sell well despite positive reviews. The studio said commercial performance had not allowed it to sustain a team of its current size, marking a further setback for a developer already beset by years of internal turmoil and legal disputes.

The Estonian studio confirmed on Bluesky that redundancy and at-risk notices had been issued to 32 employees across all departments, and said it had consulted with the ZA/UM Workers' Alliance union during the process. It previously cut up to 24 jobs in 2024. Zero Parades launched in May as an espionage RPG carrying much of Disco Elysium's narrative style, but its reception was complicated by ongoing controversy stemming from the 2021 ousting of key creatives, including lead designer Robert Kurvitz, which many fans saw as making support for the current studio contentious. A PlayStation 5 version of the game is still expected later this year.