New Publication: Selling Elysium: The Political Economy of Radical Game Distribution

In this new article from the Baltic Screen Media Review Alex Gekker and Manchester Metropolitan Game Centre member Daniel Joseph analyse the inherent contradictions of critical cultural production in global capitalist markets. To do this they focus on the ZA/UM developed hit indie RPG Disco Elysium, a game that mixes police procedural with the story of the aftermath of a crushed communist revolution. Because of its explicitly Marxist politics, Disco Elysium gathered a distinct following and played this up in its marketing when the developer released the “Working Class Update” which promised to let the game run on PCs with low specifications. Gekker and Joseph use this update as an opportunity to explore the political discourse around the game. In analysing community discourses on Reddit and Steam, they note that fans had to hold the contradiction of capitalist production methods in tension with the implicit and explicit political messages in the game.

The article also reflects on the “games of multitude” typology developed by Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter in Games of Empire. They argue that the shape of the games industry has changed considerably since its publication, in large part due to digital distribution, and that counter-hegemonic games have changed with it as well. This has given rise to games like Disco Elysium, what they call a “AA tactical game”. Importantly, however, is that radical game making has not overcome the inherent contradictions of capitalism. While it’s easier than ever to make a digital game, the industry is still pulled to specific centres of capitalist cultural production (ZA/UM moved from Estonia to the UK in the middle of development) and capitalist labour practices.

Gekker, A and Joseph, D. (2021) Selling Elysium: The Political Economy of Radical Game Distribution, Baltic Screen Media Review 9 (1), 20-31. https://doi.org/10.2478/bsmr-2021-0003