Disco Elysium

Hijacking, secret shareholders and harassment: what divided the creators of Estonia's most successful computer game "Disco Elysium"?

"I was driven to drinking by the unnatural work arrangement. The work was organized in such a way that the goal did not seem to be to make games, but rather to make people quarrel with each other. I've heard that my direct boss at the time had a nervous breakdown later and also had to leave his job."

Screenwriter Martin Luiga, who took part in the writing of "Disco Elysium" in 2015-2016 and last summer, admits this to Ekspress. It was from his recent social media post that the world learned about the sacking of the original creative team of Estonia's most famous video game.

Robert Kurvitz, who came up with "Disco Elysium", was pushed away last November along with another screenwriter, Helen Hindpere. Artistic director Alexander Rostov left in January.

In Disco Elysium, players must solve a murder mystery in the fictional city of Revachol, set in a dark and brutal world. But what happened between its creators is a much more complicated mystery.

A fight for millions of euros is happening. "Disco Elysium" is Estonia's most successful cultural project of recent times. Even rally ace Ott Tänak does not earn as much as the ZA/UM group that created the game. A few years ago, the value of this business was estimated at 65 million euros.

The above mentioned dismissals and departures await resolution in the UK Employment Tribunal next year. In addition, at the end of November, a trial will begin in Tallinn, where Kurvitz, as a small shareholder of the studio, wants access to the company's information. Several more lawsuits are pending.

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"Disco Elysium" is a "world creation" started by Robert Kurvitz, Martin Luiga, Argo Tuuliku and Kaspar Kalvet.

It can be called Kurvitz's life's work. He developed environments related to the game for over 20 years. It all started with his science fiction novel "A Sacred and Terrible Smell", which, to the disappointment of the author, was not well received by readers when it was published in 2013. People no longer sit with their noses in books.

However, they do play video games. That's how Kurvitz's group moved into that field. The right step. With "Disco Elysium" they pretty much won the lottery.

It was named Game of the Year by PC Gamer magazine. TIME chose it as one of the best PC games of the decade. It won Best Debut Game, Best Game Score and Best Screenplay at the Games BAFTA. And so on.

There are nearly 80 characters in the game, whose stories contain more than one and a half million words. It can be played in English, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, French, German and Russian. It can be said that it is one of the most read Estonian literary works.

Most importantly, this game makes millions. The makers of "Disco Elysium" do not go begging to wealthy entrepreneurs. No, they make bulky turnover and profit themselves. They could live not only like the king's cats, but like kings themselves.

"Disco Elysium" has sold more than three million copies. The sales revenue of the ZA/UM group has been around 15 million euros for the third year. Last year, Zaum Studio allocated more than four million euros as dividends.

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However, the substantial amount of money was not what made the group happy. The current conflict has been described to Ekspress as a clash of two visions. The business managers of the ZA/UM group led by Ilmar Kompus want to do business. However, the creative core led by Robert Kurvitz wants to make era-defining games, profit was secondary for them.

Luiga tweeted that "the money people came in". He added two photos to the tweet. One of them was the writer-businessman Kaur Kender, hardened by the affairs of the 1990s, around whom Kurvitz and his friends gathered at the beginning of the last decade. Together, they created a controversial website called nihilist. Later they moved to England, where they started developing "Disco Elysium". Kender was the first owner of the studio with the entrepreneur Margus Linnamäe, who financed the production of the game.

The latest news is that Kender has also been shown the door. "Kender tells people that he has been on forced medical leave since the end of August, I see no reason to doubt his words," notes Luiga.

Therefore, only Tõnis Haavel remains from the original core team. It was his photo that Luiga added next to Kender's in his tweet.

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The banker Tõnis Haavel, named the most stylish man in Estonia years ago in Stiil magazine, helped crooks steal from the business elite before the great recession. Entrepreneurs were convinced that buying land near Baku was foolproof. Afterwards, however, they searched for their "investments" like for wind across the field.

Haavel received a suspended prison sentence and an order to compensate the damage, which was estimated at 11.1 million euros. With the money it went how it usually goes. "Haavel says that he is not a resident of Estonia, he lives in Latvia. So what, that he drives around in a brand new BMW X5 and lives in a beach house in Pirita," said Kersti Kracht at the time, whose savings disappeared into the land purchase scam.

Haavel had his bankruptcy proceedings started in Latvia and also moved to England. Not to exile, but to create "Disco Elysium". He became the game's executive producer, just like Kender.

Margus Linnamäe left ZA/UM a year and a half ago. Control and management passed to Ilmar Kompus.

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According to some people, the real leader of the company (and hidden shareholder) is Tõnis Haavel, who uses the name Denis Havel inside the international company. So that employees and business partners would not find out about his past.

The Duo Kompus-Haavel/Havel decides who to hire, which projects to finance, etc. In addition, they pay management fees to their affiliated companies, for which there is no shareholders' decision. They control the game creation rights, which means that no one can make new games in the world of Elysium without their permission.

Haavel denies such allegations. "I am a producer at the subsidiary company in the UK jurisdiction. One employee out of nearly 90. I have a number of direct subordinates, so yes, I do work in a managerial position. I am not a partner however" he explains.

He adds that he did not change his name. "My name is Tõnis Haavel, like my parents gave me. As the Estonian proverb says, "the name does not spoil the man". Denis has been my nickname for a long time. It's easier to pronounce, write, etc. in multinational teams."

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Ekspress has seen a letter where Ilmar Kompus presents Denis Havel as a partner in both Estonian and British companies. Not directly, but through legal bodies.

Kompus and Haavel are not just acquaintances. Käthlin Haavel, the mother of Tõnis' two children, and Kompus' wife are sisters.

The men used to be business partners. Their company once owned half of Solaris Shopping Center. Currently, their company is called KOHA Capital - KO, which stands for Kopmus and HA for Haavel. When Haavel got into legal trouble due to the land purchase scam in Baku, the company was entirely registered to the name of Kompus.

Haavel seemed impecunious. But his creditors and opponents had their doubts. For example, in the British business register, one of the shareholders of Zaum UK Ltd is Yessirnosir Ltd, owned by Anu Reiman. She is known as Haavel's wife and sailing companion. Their racing boat is called "Yes Sir No Sir".

An Ekspress source claims that Haavel receives income through Reiman: the British company Disco Elysium UK pays tens of thousands of euros to Reiman's Estonian company Stuudio 38 every month.

"I am not married. The owner of Yessirnosir Ltd is a dear person to me," Haavel rejects the allegations. "I get paid for my work from the UK company I work for. Compared to Estonian wages, it is hefty, but not as hefty as you claim. I can't get paid from elsewhere, my employment contract wouldn't allow it."

Last year, Studio 38 earned 210,000 euros from "artistic creative activities", but the annual report does not reveal from which country and in which field exactly.

Haavel reiterates that he is not among the owners of the ZA/UM group, even though Kompus claimed so. "I don't know how to comment on Mr. Kompus' claims. There are no companies or parts of them under my control."

Now Kompus tells Ekspress that Haavel works as a producer in the company and "does his work in an exemplary manner." He has no stake in the company."

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Ilmar Kompus' current version of the reasons for the quarrel is seriously shocking: Kurvitz's crew violated all the rules of the game. "Unfortunately, I have to talk about individuals whose reasons for dismissal were non-participation in the work of the studio, creating a toxic environment, humiliating colleagues, intending to steal IP," he explains.

"Robert and Sander Taal (another minority shareholder - EE) were very important people in making the original game of Disco Elysium. But far from the only important people. Unfortunately, they themselves did not want to consider others. The conflics arose because they were being paid by Disco Elysium UK Ltd from 2020, but they did not do any work, and what little they did was not up to standard. They treated their co-workers very badly. Despite talking to them repeatedly, things did not improve. Therefore, the company was forced to fire them. Robert is said to have been known for belittling women and co-workers in the past, but this was previously unknown to the company. It would be very short-sighted of a growing international company to tolerate such behavior."

According to Kompus, it turns out that they had also done other activities against the company, sowed chaos, manipulated, wanted to steal the company's property. "Obviously, delusions of grandeur. They went to sell themselves secretly and in violation of existing contracts to other well-known large game industry companies, but no one was interested. That might have made them angry. Their dismissal was demanded and carried out by their direct manager, Kaur Kender. For now, Kender has also been removed from the company's work. Unfortunately, he has challenges in his private life that prevent him from doing work that meets the requirements."

Neither Robert Kurvitz nor his company's lawyer answered Ekspress' questions.

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Disco Elysium was so successful that there were talks of a sequel. In February of this year, a contract was signed with Amazon to produce a TV series. Back in August, ERR (Estonian Public Broadcasting) announced that ZA/UM is making preparations for their next project.

For now the development of "Disco Elysium 2" is suspended. "As far as I know, the sequel has been shelved," confirms Martin Luiga. The translation of "A Sacred and Terrible Smell" has also been ruled out.

Key personnel of the original creative team were kicked out.

The worldwide rights to "Disco Elysium" are held by Kompus (and Haavel/Haveli), who are in no hurry. There have been claims within the company that they're using an "oxygen-tactic". Soon the creators cut off from money will run out of "financial oxygen" and they will all come back humbly begging. Then they can be offered a "fair" price for their small stake, not too different from zero.

According to Kompus, things are different. "Immediately after being fired, partners Robert and Sander began legal proceedings to challenge their dismissal," he says. "The company sees no reason or content in the lawsuits."

Business is sometimes brutal. Much more brutal than some rough video game.