I’ve been at two startups in my career. Both venture capital financed. Even though they are completely different industries, this is the exact playbook they used.
The VCs were in the same industry both times, though: Making money by selling property.
They're not interested in selling do-dads, or softwhizzles. They want to sell the company, and that's making the same play in the same game every time.
As much as I'd love for more actual, true DE content, I'm actually happy this expansion is cancelled. Doing a content release without Kurvitz, Hindpere and Rostov would just be wrong, and would create an awkward situation for new players in the future. If we can't have more real DE content, I'm happy the existing game at least gets to remain as an intact monolith rather than be diluted by additions outside the original writers' vision and without the inimitable art of Rostov.
It's like, 'I have terrible news: we didn't have enough work to keep paying the mechanics, so now we have no one to fix all the broken delivery trucks!'
The odds of that are so incredibly low. DE is a fantastic standalone game. Arguably one of the most artistically complex and rich games ever made, and it stands alone perfectly well. It raised the bar for gaming in a way that others have aspired to but not ever really reached. The best we can hope for is that the makers of the game can make a new game in the future. One whose IP they know how to protect, this time.
Disco Elysium has been dead in the water for years now. I won't support the publisher anymore. The only reason why I didn't pirate the game to begin with, even at the request of the OG dev, is because I don't trust repacks or random .exe's.
If you're worried about random exes and repacs, I'll let you know that there is a DRM-free GOG version of Disco Elysium. Of course you still need to make sure you're downloading it from a reputable source, but it's basically as good as it gets from safety standpoint.
I don't think they would want to deal with this shit again, and I wouldn't blame them. I'm just going to be content with the fact we got one good game.