Disco Elysium writer was told “people covet these items more than they care” when pushing back against ridiculous merch

Earlier this week, a plastic bag blowing in the wind made me question all I knew about the world, but in whatever way the opposite of life-affirming is. Less blowing, actually. More taunting me from my screen maddeningly like a middle finger salute from a man with no hands. It was a baffling piece of licensed merch from Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM and Atelier, who I assume are three hyenas in a board room sniffing each other’s crotches for eternity.

I couldn’t tell you exactly where I first saw the bag – which has actually been on sale for a few months now – but I soon realised why it had likely entered the zeitgeist again: an extensive set of a documentary podcasts by YouTube creator The 41st Precinct, the latest of which interviews writers Dora Klindžić and Argo Tuulik for more time than I have ever spent on anything. Here’s a clip on Atelier and that fucking bag.

“I have in the past received threats from management when I had tried to push back against some items, because this is an incredibly successful business for them,” says Klindžić. “The darkest thing I ever heard was – I don’t remember who it was from that circle – but they told me that it doesn’t matter at all what people are saying on Twitter, because you see those same names who say they’re never going to buy…they’re the ones ordering these expensive items from ZA/UM. That this loud minority doesn’t matter because people covet these items more than they care about this.”

If you haven’t been following the mess since Disco Elysium’s release, it began when setting creator and lead ideasman Robert Kurvitz got booted from the studio, with a web of allegations of fraud and misconduct coming from either side. More recently, Tuulik has been fundraising for legal fees for himself and Klindžić to get back the IP, as well as cover living expenses.

Again, this is just one short clip from the writers talking about their experience with the company. The 41st Precinct describes the podcasts as a “huge interview which covers every major event in the timeline of [Klindžić and Tuulik]’s working lives at ZA/UM” in the two year period between “Winter 2021 to their own dismissal in early 2024”

“I messaged Dora just as herself and Argo were considering their options for going public,” he tells me. “Although they speak very fondly about the work People Make Games had done to expose the inner workings of ZA/UM, they felt that the level of corruption and conspiracy they had experienced was so vast and complicated that they needed to speak on a platform that was raw and allowed for every word of their story to be heard.”

“Starting with the dismissal of Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere in 2021 right through to as recently as early 2024 when news of the mass redundancies broke. In between all of that is an organisation which is compared to that of a cult, Argo and Dora talk extensively about how a group of higher ups – Tonis Haavel, Phil Davidson and Ed Tomaszewski – used power and influence to control the flow of information within ZA/UM, ensuring a handful of hand picked ‘Lead Writers’ were kept happy enough to do their bidding amongst the workers.”

Klindžić, Tuulik and the host cover stories involving “corruption, workplace bullying, outright law breaking, union action, projects being meddled with to the point of suffocation, and a very real guerilla fight back inside ZAUM from all of the workers who didn’t qualify as a puppet for the executives.”

“This is not the only story like this in the industry,” The 41st Precinct tells me. “people making games are being stamped on regularly in support of millionaire interests. Gaming is becoming another play thing for the super rich”. He hopes the videos will play their part in the fight against that.