Disco Elysium is being released on mobile because ZA/UM wants to, er, “captivate the TikTok user” by “creating an all new, deeply engaging form of entertainment”

You know Disco Elysium, that game that’s arguably better known at this point for all the fallout at developer ZA/UM and beyond which followed its initial release, often proving as seriously concerning as it has strange?

Well, this summer it’s getting an android version – just announced by ZA/UM literally days after the studio revealed its next game – because the studio wants to “captivate” the TikTok crowd. Yeah, I imagine your face looks a bit like mine did when I first learned this was a thing.

Anyway, now we’ve had a chance to gather ourselves, here are the details. This is a re-imagining of the game designed to tailor it specifically for android devices, basically so you can play Disco on the go in a manner tailored for the shorter sessions that can entail, as you’d expect.

However, according to ZA/UM studio head Denis Havel, it’s much more than that. “We intend to captivate the TikTok user with quick hits of compelling story, art, and audio, ultimately creating an all new, deeply engaging form of entertainment,” Havel said. Right then. Those are definitely words.

To be fair, it’s not like there’s already plenty of Disco Elysium content on TikTok, which could serve as evidence that the game’s existing forms have already managed to captivate people on there plenty. Stuff like, for example, the thing I’ve embedded below.

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Back to Disco mobile, though. ZA/UM as a studio stated in the announcement that: “The goal of the Disco Elysium mobile experience is to bring Disco Elysium to new players and hopefully serve existing Disco Elysium players with a fun, on-the-go alternative”. It added that you’ll be able to access “the first two chapters of Disco Elysium for mobile free of charge”, to help you “make an informed decision” about what you’re buying.

“Today’s ZA/UM studio is comprised of both creators and custodians of the Disco Elysium IP,” the statement adds, “We take both of those roles very seriously and we believe that is evident in the Disco Elysium mobile experience we are creating.” Ok.

Pre-registration for Disco mobile should now be live on the Play Store here, if you want to be able to jump in as soon as this launches.