"This non-profit will be the 'voice of the gamers'" - Former Disco Elysium devs break new ground with player- and developer-owned studio structure

Elsewhere on the site, you can read a big reveal piece that outlines the new game from former Disco Elysium devs under the name of Summer Eternal - an "incendiary RPG" fusing the best bits of text-heavy isometric role-playing games with the world-building and player agency of an immersive sim. It's bold, it's ambitious, and it's still in development, and if it all comes off, it could be something really special.

But here's the most intriguing part, as far as I'm concerned: the developers are giving you the chance to have a say over how the company is run. If you buy anything from the studio - including the 500 page Anthology that was formally announced today - you are welcome to join the Players Non-Profit community organisation, which owns 5 percent of Summer Eternal and takes part in the studio's governance.

"The Players Non-Profit owns a five percent share in our studio. The other 95 percent is divided between other stakeholders: full-time workers, freelancers and investors in Summer Eternal," explains the studio in a press release. But what exactly does that mean? Well, it's a long and complicated explanation - as these things often are - but the central point is this: every player is a member of the board.

In a late stage capitalist world, that might seem a little… well, radical. But Summer Eternal holds community and developer ownership as one of its core philosophical tenets. This is more a collective than it is a company. "Although five percent is a shy amount, it's still powerful enough for the player-pool to summon a general Assembly to discuss a topic," says Summer Eternal. "This non-profit will be the 'voice of the gamers' in an experimental attempt to formalise the community decision-making in game development. The non-profit can use the game revenue to organise events, support union-work, or whatever their assembly (comprised of all members) decides on."

The primary function of this collective, per Summer Eternal itself, is to "provide transparency and actionable means of interception to those who've put their trust in us". Ergo: don't like a feature in the game? You can challenge the devs. Don't want a specific mechanic, or character, or scene? You have a right to make your voice heard. It's not something we often see in games - studios commonly work 'behind closed doors' until they've got a nearly shippable build to show, and then we might get a demo or the press may see a build before general release. There are, of course, some studios that buck that trend with Early Access initiatives, but they are hit and miss for studios. This more communal approach to development is far more rare, and - in my eyes, at least - exciting.

I have read a fair amount about Summer Eternal's structure and its vision for community-facing development through its Anthology; part-treatise about Summer Eternals radical development ideas and the politics of making games in 2026, part-development diary about Red Rooster. It includes interviews about the state of games and tech with economists Yanis Varoufakis and Richard Wolff, a chat with science fiction visionary (and one of my favourite authors) Ted Chiang, conversations with Bioware veterans Mark Darrah and David Gaider, as well as stories from worker-run organizations such as the UVW-CWA, Aftermath, and Peregrine Coast Press.

If you'd like a copy yourself, you can purchase one here - it's €69 for the Standard edition, and €99 for the Deluxe Firestarter bundle that comes with a vinyl and additional merch. And, naturally, if you buy a copy of the book, you will also be entitled to a membership in the Summer Eternal Players Non-Profit organisation. You can join that initiative here.