Why do the likes of $165-ish official Disco Elysium plastic bags exist? Well, one ex-writer says she was simply told “people covet these items more than they care”

You can buy an official version of plastic bag Harry Du Bois uses in very good detective game and now endless source of often very depressing fallout involving its studio and the numerous creatives and devs who no longer work at said studio, Disco Elysium.

It costs €159, which is about $165 or £132, and can be acquired via the ZA/UM Atelier store. Why does it exist, despite being arguably a bit insensitive in our whole cost-of-living-crisis reality and certainly against the spirit of the game it comes from?

Well, as part of a recent interview with YouTuber The 41st Precinct which is about 15 hours long in total (thanks, RPS), ex-ZA/UM writer Dora Klindzic, whom we spoke to last year as part of our interview with the studio/art collective Summer Eternal that she’s now part of, spoke about what it was like pushing back against the selling of kinda weird and pretty expensive DE merch.

“I have in the past received threats from management when I had tried to push back against some Atelier items, because this is an incredibly successful business for them,” Klindžić claimed. “The darkest thing I ever heard was, I don’t remember who it was from that circle, but they told me it doesn’t matter at all what people are saying on Twitter, because you can see those same names of people who say on Twitter they’re never going to buy Atelier [items], that they’re never gonna support ZA/UM, that they’re the ones ordering the expensive items from ZA/UM.

“That this loud minority doesn’t matter because people want – covet – these items more than they care about this, [and their] morals and integrity. People are buying this stuff, and it seems like even the people who are outwardly critical, they cannot help their consumerist impulse.” Klindžić added that, if true, this makes her “sad about the world”, and well, yeah, same.

VG247 has reached out to ZA/UM for comment.

At the end of the day, no one can have too much of a problem with just the idea of games companies selling some merch if people are willing to buy it, but maybe a game like Disco’s not the one that should be the poster child for pretty ridiculously bougie goods.