ZA/UM laying off up to 32 staff after Zero Parades underperforms commercially

ZA/UM Studio is cutting up to 32 employees across all departments after Zero Parades: For Dead Spies failed to generate enough sales to sustain the studio at its current size. The announcement came via a statement posted to the studio's social media on Friday afternoon.

The studio confirmed it has served redundancy or at-risk notices to those affected, and says it has been consulting with the ZA/UM Workers' Alliance throughout the process. ZA/UM had around 100 employees as of October 2025, when its staff formed the first recognised video game developers' union in the UK, represented by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain. The full statement acknowledged the critical acclaim Zero Parades received while being blunt about the commercial shortfall: "its commercial performance has not enabled us to sustain a studio of our current size." The studio closed with a note asking other employers to consider the departing staff.

ZA/UM has been one of the most turbulent studios in recent memory. Disco Elysium — released in 2019 and widely regarded as one of the best RPGs ever made — launched the studio to critical stardom, but the years since have been defined by bitter disputes. Game director Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov publicly accused management figures Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel of gaining ownership of the studio and its IP fraudulently, and claimed they were fired after requesting financial records. Kompus and Haavel denied those allegations and issued counter-claims of their own. Zero Parades was ZA/UM's attempt to move forward from that wreckage, but its commercial performance has now triggered another round of cuts.

Reaction on social media has been sharply critical — less of the layoffs themselves and more of the studio's leadership and its track record. One Bluesky commenter summed up a widely shared sentiment: the departing workers deserve better, but ZA/UM has "poisoned the brand" for much of its fanbase. With replies disabled on both X and Bluesky, the quote-post responses have been even harsher. The studio insists its "artistic standards remain unchained" and that it will persist, but what that looks like with a significantly smaller team remains to be seen.