Kotaku⁠73%

Disco Elysium Studio Says Game About People Forced Into Impossible Situations Didn't Sell Well Enough To Prevent Layoffs ⁠87%

By Ash Parrish⁠54%

7/17/2026, 9:38:19 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Unattributed Quote, and Pessimism Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 54.1% saturation with 186 hits. Analysis detected 1,031 faulty-reasoning hits from 344 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 79.2% and a BS Rank of ⁠87% (2,963 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 86.50% of the article peer group.

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, the follow-up to Disco Elysium from ZA/UM Studio, was a success, at least from a critical standpoint. 
The game got rave reviews across the board, including from Kotaku. 
But according to ZA/UM, financial success didn’t follow the critical acclaim and as a result, the studio says it’s been forced to implement layoffs. 
“We have served redundancy or at-risk notices impacting up to 32 of our colleagues across all departments at ZA/UM Studio,” the studio posted on social, saying that it is working with ZA/UM's labor union to navigate the layoff process. 
The layoffs represent another setback for ZA/UM, which has been rocked by layoffs and scandal for the last four years. 
In 2022, three of the studio's founders, Robert Kurvitz, Aleksander Rostov, and Helen Hindpere, revealed that they had left the company “involuntarily” and that the remaining ZA/UM leadership had been trying to keep the split under wraps. 
In response, Kurvitz and Rostov sued ZA/UM for allegedly taking over a majority share of the studio illegally, beginning a series of complicated legal exchanges that would eventually be resolved a year later. 
During that time, however, ZA/UM claimed that the reason the three were let go was because they fostered a toxic work environment, with Kurvitz also allegedly trying to illegally sell ZA/UM's intellectual property. 
It was a very messy, upsetting affair to watch the studio responsible for what's been called one of the greatest narrative games ever fall apart while on the cusp of developing a sequel, something the remaining members of ZA/UM could never quite manage. 
In the years following Disco Elysium's release, ZA/UM would cancel numerous projects, further alienating its remaining creators who would leave the company to spin off three separate studios, all gunning to create Disco Elysium's worthy successor. 
So far, none but Zero Parades have released, a feat that is itself tarnished now with layoffs representing an unfortunate irony when you understand the game's central theme. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 4.7%Kotaku: 4.4%Confirmation Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.7%Kotaku: 1.6%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 2.4%Kotaku: 4.0%Availability Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.8%Kotaku: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 2.9%Kotaku: 1.0%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 1.5%Kotaku: 1.7%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 6.4%Ash Parrish: 7.0%Kotaku: 5.8%Framing Effect6.4%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.8%Kotaku: 1.1%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 1.8%Kotaku: 1.1%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 10.5%Ash Parrish: 0.3%Kotaku: 0.4%Sunk Cost Effect10.5%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 1.5%Kotaku: 2.9%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 23.3%Ash Parrish: 3.0%Kotaku: 3.4%Pessimism Bias23.3%This article: 47.7%Ash Parrish: 13.2%Kotaku: 13.5%Negativity Bias47.7%This article: 11.3%Ash Parrish: 3.5%Kotaku: 2.0%Self-Serving Bias11.3%This article: 9.6%Ash Parrish: 3.2%Kotaku: 1.5%Fundamental Attribution Error9.6%This article: 9.6%Ash Parrish: 1.0%Kotaku: 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias9.6%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.4%Kotaku: 1.3%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.3%Kotaku: 0.3%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 3.2%Ash Parrish: 11.4%Kotaku: 3.6%Halo Effect3.2%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.6%Kotaku: 0.3%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 5.8%Ash Parrish: 4.0%Kotaku: 2.4%Recency Bias5.8%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 1.1%Kotaku: 0.6%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 2.2%Kotaku: 1.3%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.6%Straw Man0.0%This article: 3.2%Ash Parrish: 2.2%Kotaku: 2.6%Appeal to Authority3.2%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 2.2%Kotaku: 2.3%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 1.0%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 12.5%Ash Parrish: 9.6%Kotaku: 9.4%Hasty Generalization12.5%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.3%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.8%Kotaku: 1.1%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 20.6%Ash Parrish: 8.1%Kotaku: 5.8%Appeal to Emotion20.6%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 1.7%Kotaku: 0.9%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 17.4%Ash Parrish: 5.4%Kotaku: 2.4%Post Hoc (False Cause)17.4%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.3%Kotaku: 0.3%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.7%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 1.3%Kotaku: 0.5%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 8.1%Ash Parrish: 2.6%Kotaku: 4.3%Anecdotal8.1%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 9.6%Ash Parrish: 1.5%Kotaku: 2.0%Ambiguity (Equivocation)9.6%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.5%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.2%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 27.3%Ash Parrish: 5.7%Kotaku: 2.8%Unattributed Quote27.3%This article: 11.3%Ash Parrish: 2.6%Kotaku: 1.6%Quote-first Misdirection11.3%This article: 54.1%Ash Parrish: 26.9%Kotaku: 15.3%Biased Writer Voice54.1%This article: 8.1%Ash Parrish: 2.3%Kotaku: 2.4%Indoctrination8.1%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.6%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ash Parrish: 1.8%Kotaku: 3.5%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

344 words analyzed.

Speakers

1speaker28%attributed speech248writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 18 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 11 words • 0.0% coverageZA/UM • 24 words • 100.0% coverageZA/UM • 39 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 37 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 33 words • 0.0% coverageZA/UM • 33 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 43 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 36 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 28 words • 100.0% coverage
Selected voice

ZA/UM

100%flagged-word coverage
96 attributed words100% of attributed speech93% writer coverage
0%37.5%75.0%Biased Writer Voice-75.0 ptsWriter: 75.0%ZA/UM: 0.0%0.0%Unattributed Quote+44.5 ptsWriter: 14.9%ZA/UM: 59.4%59.4%Quote-first Misdirection+40.6 ptsWriter: 0.0%ZA/UM: 40.6%40.6%Indoctrination-11.3 ptsWriter: 11.3%ZA/UM: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.