The world building and core writing happened over many years. I’m sure they could produce a new IP but it would take a lot more than having their own company. Plus some of the magic is production quality and that was the rest of the team that now doesn’t want to work with them. My read is that management created a toxic environment and pitted groups against each other.

Maybe, but I don’t think they’ve formed a new company yet, although they should. At least I haven’t heard of any new project from them, just some sequel ideas from the original company, which is now divorced from its original founders and creative, so it will probably suck.

It’s also a world they’ve been developing since high school, so their next idea may not be as developed. Maybe it will just take them awhile to come up with something new which is why we haven’t heard anything yet? I think they played ttrpg games in it iirc. I’ve got some imaginary places like that in my mind, so I could sympathize with having it blow up, which would be amazing, and then taken from them, which must feel horrible =(

People Make Games made a lengthy documentary on this subject. It’s surprisingly more complicated than it sounds with many writers, artists, and developers within the company coming forward to say that the original lead writers were toxic to work with and rightfully removed from the team. They created an incredible world with huge potential, but much of the work of bringing it to life was done by a full team of creators who still work for ZA/UM. Ultimately, yes, I would really like to see Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere start a new game studio, hopefully having learned from their mistakes (both in business and in relation to their colleagues).