The developers from the newly-created Summer Eternal studio, one of the three where the former Disco Elysium team moved, criticized Valve's monopoly. In their opinion, it's time for the gaming industry to think about an alternative and prepare for change.
The Summer Eternal studio began its existence by publishing a manifesto against the situation in the gaming industry. Its founders promised to create an independent, world-class team that would release a multifaceted RPG. In an interview with VG247, the developers shared a little more about their position, touching on recent events at Ubisoft:
The strikes and pickets we are seeing these days at the Ubisoft premises are the first step towards more power for the workers in the industry. I myself ascribe to the accelerationist view that the only way to achieve better conditions is to enter crises which underline the contradictions of society and force us to remake the world.
He also spoke about Steam, a platform owned by Valve. According to Alexander Gavrilovich, it's time to look for a replacement for Gabe Newell's brainchild:
I am still eagerly awaiting a second crisis, one which would spotlight the largest structural issue in game development — the fact that one third of all PC revenue from all developers (from indies to AAA) is syphoned to digital fiefdoms, of which Valve is the most egregious example. I can imagine a near future with more worker power, but I lack the imagination to envision the replacement of Valve with a community owned alternative. That «winter castle» will not fall as easily, but we should at least start openly discussing alternatives.
Recall that the Summer Eternal studio includes Disco Elysium scriptwriters Argo Tuulik and Olga Moskvina, as well as several former ZA/UM employees. The developers are not sharing details of their future projects yet — unlike them, other «Disco Elysium successors» have already shown concepts and even gameplay.