Poll of the Day > turns out those disco elysium people were fairly fired lol

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/disco-elysium-studio-zaum-confirms-former-employees-were-fired-for-misconduct

Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM has confirmed an Estonian press report of mismanagement and misconduct among former senior employees to GamesIndustry.biz.

The reports follow news that three key members of ZA/UM Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere, and art director Aleksander Rostov had been dismissed from the company last year.
In an exclusive statement, ZA/UM detailed some of the reasons behind recent dismissals, but did not name any specific individuals.

The studio said the dismissed employees had limited to no engagement in their responsibilities and work, created a toxic work environment, demonstrated misconduct towards other employees including verbal abuse and gender discrimination, and attempted to illegally sell ZA/UM's intellectual property.

More details are specified by the studio in the full statement below.

ZA/UM also confirmed that legal filings related to the former team are pending, but did not divulge further. Last month, Kurvitz filed a suit against ZA/UM via his company Telomer, to "obtain and review documents," though no additional details were given.
Speaking to Estonian newspaper Estonian Ekspress (translated by Google), ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus said the studio suffered from a "toxic environment," and accused Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz and 'Saandar Taal' of "humiliating colleagues and intending to steal IP."

ZA/UM confirmed that Saandar Taal is an alias of Aleksander Rostov.

Kompus accused Kurvitz and Taal of "belittling women and co-workers," claims that echo those made by GamesIndustry.biz's own sources.

"They treated their co-workers very badly," Kompus told the Ekspress. "Despite talking to them repeatedly, things did not improve. Therefore, the company was forced to fire them. Robert [Kurvitz] is said to have been known for belittling women and co-workers in the past, but this was previously unknown to the company. It would be very short-sighted of a growing international company to tolerate such behaviour."

One source that spoke to GamesIndustry.biz, who asked to remain anonymous, described the situation as "not black and white," and said that long-term staff were reluctant to speak out about Kurvitz behaviour because they respected him, and felt like they owed him for their positions. Our source claimed staff hired later on did not have a clear picture of the situation and felt uncomfortable speaking out on behalf of others.

"The work was organised in such a way that the goal did not seem to be to make games, but rather to make people quarrel with each other," Luiga told the outlet.

Kompus also claimed that Kurvitz and Taal had discussed wanting to take control of the company's intellectual property including Disco Elysium which he described as "delusions of grandeur."

"They went to sell themselves secretly and in violation of existing contracts to other well-known large game industry companies, but no one was interested," Kompus said. "That might have made them angry.

Kompus added that their dismissal was demanded and carried out by Kaur Kender, executive producer on Disco Elysium and their direct manager at the time.

Kender was placed on a leave of absence on medical grounds in late August according to Kompus, which was verified by our own sources.

Sources that spoke to the Ekspress described a clash of two visions between the business team of ZA/UM led by Kompus, and the creative team formerly headed by Robert Kurvitz, which considered profit "secondary."
This was corroborated by our sources, one of which described the situation as "CEO corporate scheming on one side, a toxic auteur on the other."

ZA/UM said in its statement to GamesIndustry.biz that "The rumour that our decision to terminate the contracts of these individuals was taken for financial gain is entirely unfounded and does not in any way reflect the facts."

Speaking to the Ekspress, Martin Luiga, co-founder of the recently dissolved ZA/UM cultural association and editor of the Disco Elysium novel, said he was "driven to drink by the unnatural work arrangement" at the studio.
"The work was organised in such a way that the goal did not seem to be to make games, but rather to make people quarrel with each other," Luiga told the outlet.

Management shuffles are still ongoing. GamesIndustry.biz learned that Private Division co-founder Ed Tomaszewski was appointed as ZA/UM's new president this week, though the studio did not confirm this appointment in its statement.

Update, Nov 9: As we were publishing this report, former employees Aleksander Rostov and Robert Kurvitz shared a post that claimed the majority stake in Zaum Studio O, the entity that owns the Disco Elysium IP, was obtained fraudulently.

"As soon as they [Ilmar Kompus and Tnis Haavel] became majority shareholders, we were quickly excluded from daily operations, our employment was terminated and our access to the companys information was shut off," the post said. "Our firing came weeks after we started asking for documents and financial data, which is still being kept from us."

dasha (louis cks gf lmao) was in that

you might also know her as the ex-fianc of the future of center-left late night comedy, Adam Friedland

Hard_Light posted...

Update, Nov 9: As we were publishing this report, former employees Aleksander Rostov and Robert Kurvitz shared a post that claimed the majority stake in Zaum Studio O, the entity that owns the Disco Elysium IP, was obtained fraudulently.

so why aren't you posting an article with the direct counterclaims to all this? what you posted accounts to what ZA/UM heads said what happened. it's not even new news, it's literally just what they alleged before, except now gamesindustry.biz (and noone else) is supporting ZA/UM heads with anonymous sources

https://medium.com/@artofrostov/to-fans-of-disco-elysium-concerning-the-situation-at-za-um-3e6bc46ea9c

kurvitz and rostov allege fraud, which is in line with their previous characterization of the investors. and also uh, the investors' legal histories involving fraud

because they can lie and the studio can't so their rebuttal is irrelevant

all i did was copy the article and paste it, they have an update at the bottom about that

why do you think studio heads can't tell lies but the original creators can

all you did was report on one side of a he-said-she-said and assume it's the truth

because if they lie they can be sued for lying since it's illegal pretty much everywhere to lie about company matters when you have shareholders

the fired people can lie because they don't have any company or shareholders beholden to them, and as such, have a very different set of laws apply to them if they're caught lying

or maybe it's a lawless no mans land in estonia idfk but typically a company faces very real consequences for lying that regular people don't

but yes, i'm very much beholden to the company usually tells the truth about these things because they literally have nothing to gain by lying about it and a lot to lose if lied

and even if they aren't lying, they were still fired fairly

Hard_Light posted...

because if they lie they can be sued for lying since it's illegal pretty much everywhere to lie about company matters when you have shareholders

and the original owners have stated that they're suing

Hard_Light posted...

or maybe it's a lawless no mans land in estonia idfk but typically a company faces very real consequences for lying that regular people don't

did you miss the part where one of the investors was already accused of investment fraud? they aren't exactly scared to break laws

Hard_Light posted...

and even if they aren't lying, they were still fired fairly

not if the counterclaim is true. you can't use company funds to buy a personal majority stake in a company, then fire people who are suspicious of where the money came from

"We believe the money used by Ttreke O to buy the majority stake was taken illegally from Zaum Studio O itself, money that belonged to the studio and all shareholders but was used for the benefit of one."

also I'm not even sure if it's a counterclaim. from what everything i'm looking at, the creators' post alleging investment fraud went up slightly earlier than the company calling them delusional

yeah uh it looks like the creators' statement came out first and they just posted this article with a delayed update at the bottom to make it look like theirs came first lmao. there's absolutely no way they posted this on the same day kurvitz and rostov posted their statement and didn't see it.

this article is baseless, sourceless mudflinging in retaliation of the news that kurvitz are rostov are suing.

https://twitter.com/martinluiga/status/1590259960751194113

hey look another minor shareholder was fired with one of the majority shareholders claiming he never had shares to begin with

it would still be a fair firing my man, especially if they had prior established history of being toxic

i'm not gonna argue if it's particularly ethical at how they went about it but toxicity should never be tolerated in the workplace

so fair firing

if he achieved sole decision-making power through illegal means and then fired those who were trying to expose him, that is not fair firing. he never legally had the authority to do so, only illegally.

Hard_Light posted...

especially if they had prior established history of being toxic

i'd also like to point out that luiga's quote was not talking about rostov and kurvitz, he was referencing the investors. luiga was one of the guys who wasn't ousted from the company (left on his own later on) but was still on their side, saying it was unfair termination.

imma be honest with you i wanted to be super disingenuous right there and be all "oh so now you support toxicity blah blah blah" but i couldn't find a way to make it not sound super obviously trolly so i'm just gonna take the L because my ego is too hurt from my inability to tie it in with a proper response

helly topic

Hard_Light posted...

imma be honest with you i wanted to be super disingenuous right there and be all "oh so now you support toxicity blah blah blah" but i couldn't find a way to make it not sound super obviously trolly so i'm just gonna take the L because my ego is too hurt from my inability to tie it in with a proper response

common helly W

what is a common helly w