Telltale Games hit with layoffs: The publisher and developer behind Telltale’s The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and more, is possibly shutting down. According to The Verge, Telltale Games has downsized tremendously and only 25 developers remain to finish the The Walking Dead: The Final Season. Any future projects, such as The Wolf Among Us Season 2, have been canceled. All employees that were let go received no severance pay.
According to US Gamer, sources claim that once The Walking Dead: The Final Season is finished, the studio will close. They cite reasons behind the situations to be a result of crunch culture and internal mismanagement. A notoriously buggy game engine made development even more difficult, necessitating even more crunch time. A deal was negotiated with Netflix earlier this year to develop a Stranger Things game however, that appears to have fallen through.
Update:
Former Telltale Games CEO Kevin Bruner posted on his personal website, talking about the studio’s closure.
Today, I’m mostly saddened for the people who are losing their jobs at a studio they love. And I’m also saddened at the loss of a studio that green-lit crazy ideas that no one else would consider. I’m comforted a bit knowing there are now so many new talented people and studios creating games in the evolving narrative genre. While I look forward to those games and new developments, and continuing to contribute, I will always find “A Telltale Game” to have been a unique offering.
Update 2:
Telltale Games has issued an official statement:
— Telltale Games (@telltalegames) September 21, 2018
Update 3:
Unfortunately, it looks like The Walking Dead: The Final Season won’t be finished. According to USgamer, sources have told them that the remaining 25 developers will be working on the Minecraft Story Mode for Netflix, fulfilling their obligations to their remaining partner deals.
With that, everything we’ve reported previously has been confirmed.
Seeing Telltale Games hit with layoffs is truly terrible and I hope all the affected developers land on their feet.
