It’s been almost two months since ZA/UM released their second game Zero Parades: For Dead Spies (and obviously first after years of controversy. Unfortunately for workers at the studio, the game does not appear to have sold well enough, as more than 30 devs are being laid off or are at-risk of being laid off.
“Today, we are sharing difficult news. While Zero Parades: For Dead Spies was released to critical acclaim, its commercial performance has not enabled us to sustain a studio of our current size,” a statement from ZA/UM reads. “We have served redundancy or at-risk notices impacting up to 32 of our colleagues across all departments at ZA/UM Studio. Their work has made a lasting difference and left its mark on Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, and the studio as a whole.”
— ZA/UM Studio (@zaumstudio.bsky.social) July 17, 2026 at 5:55 PM
According to the post, ZA/UM leadership have “continued to consult and work with representatives of the ZA/UM Workers’ Alliance.” In case you need a refresher, this Workers’ Alliance was formed last October, marking it as the first recognised video game union in the UK games industry. At the time of the announcement, there are apparently “almost 100” staffers at the studio, meaning this latest round of layoffs is clearing out around a third of the studio.
This isn’t the first time that layoffs have taken place, with many ex-ZA/UM devs going on to form their own studios and make their own Disco Elysium spiritual successors, such as Tangerine Antarctic (formerly XXX Nightshift), Hopetown, and Red Rooster. None of these have managed to release yet, with varying degrees of material publicly available for the three games.
We never reviewed Zero Parades, but Edwin did do a grand little writeup if you’re looking for some thoughts on it.