GAMES LIKE DISCO ELYSIUM PC
On November 9, Studio ZA/UM provided PC Gamer with a statement (opens in new tab) elaborating on its reasons for firing Kurvitz and Rostov. Kurvitz and Rostov believe that ZA/UM's new owners should face criminal charges.
This is the financial side of the battle for Disco Elysium's soul, but it may get even more serious. Again he was sent the order, and again he went quiet. Haavel told the Ekspress that the allegations are "completely absurd" and he wouldn't comment on any order he hadn't seen. He looked at them and did not respond further. The paper then sent him the legal documents.
Ilmar Kompus denied there was any lawsuit against him to the Estonian Ekspress. This is the source of Haavel's 2015 conviction. Kender claims Haavel's role is being kept secret because Haavel is bankrupt to the tune of an astonishing €11.2 million, which is because he's liable to pay compensation due to an infamous scandal called the Baku land affair: an investment bubble promising to buy up land in Azerbaijan where all the money vanished. In fact, the director is Anu Reiman, who also owns "over 75%" of it (opens in new tab), and is the partner of one Tõnis Haavel. To cut to the chase, ZA/UM UK owns a subsidiary company called Yessirnosir Ltd, which is the holder of the IP rights to Disco Elysium, and this company was believed to be owned by Kompus. Kender's lawsuit also targets Tõnis Haavel, alleging that Kompus was acting under his direction. He argued to the court that it should seize Kompus's stake in ZA/UM to prevent its sale during any ongoing action and the money disappearing overseas. It is Kender who sent this into legal overdrive, claiming in court that Kompus cheated him out of just under €1,000,000. 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).īy this stage, the Disco Elysium executive producer, Kender, had also begun to ask difficult questions, so Kompus allegedly dealt with him by putting him on leave and then firing him.
GAMES LIKE DISCO ELYSIUM SERIES
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.īut 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. Kompus allegedly hoped that ZA/UM and Disco Elysium could be resold quickly. This amount is what was apparently used to buy Linnamäe's large stake, and put it in the hands of Kompus. 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.
Both still own minor shareholdings in ZA/UM.Īt 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. The pair allegedly began demanding answers, shortly after which they were sacked.
GAMES LIKE DISCO ELYSIUM REGISTRATION
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. Kurvitz and Rostov did not know about this at the time. There was an expectation that Linnamäe would split his shareholding among the partners, but he allegedly sold it all to Kompus. The Estonian Ekspress reports (opens in new tab) 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.
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