Telltale Games Begins Majority Studio Closure With Mass Layoffs

Shame. Guess they flew too close to the sun and got burned.

Oh well.

Bummed, I really liked a lot of their games. On the other hand, if they were being crappy to their staff, I'm fine with the closure.

I’ve seen reports say that the rest of the final season of TWD has been cancelled as well. It’s a shame, I was really looking forward to playing that.

Not a huge fan of that style of games, but they were the best at what they did.

Never had an interest in their software, but it’s still sad to see them go.

Wolf Among Us Season 2 and Stranger Things were both cancelled in the process.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season will also remain incomplete, ending after Episode 2, despite their original intentions to produce 5-6 episodes

However, Batman: The Enemy Within is probably still coming to Switch. Guardians of the Galaxy, on the other hand...

Yes, blamed it on the game engine... and they weren't even using Unity.

With a excruciating work environment for employees and outdated technology, I guess TellTale Games has become TellFail Games?

Dang, just when TellTale started to release their games on Nintendo consoles.

So sad that the their first big hit, The Walking Dead won't be finished due to they got distracted on so many other IPs. They would have done better if they focused on certain IPs like The Walking Dead & The Wolf Among Us and not focus on so many other projects at once.

@Syntaxkita I’m pretty sure the only thing they are going to work anymore on is the Minecraft story mode thing. Everything thing else is cancelled

It's sad, but they were allegedly ran by horrible people. I am still sad for all of the innocent employees who were passionate about their work and the fans who appreciated it.

Sucks to see them go but unsurprising with how the place was supposedly run and the questionable quality of content these past few years. Sucks for those who got screwed with Final season of Walking Dead.

Question though. Could they really be in that much of a financial crapshoot with all those high calibur licenses? What did they squander it all on..

Damn, I'm in shock. Had no idea they were in this much trouble, and given the big IPs they were given, I'd never imagine they'd be in this much trouble financially.

Thats a shame about TWD as well, its a pity they can't at least finish it. Wonder what assets were already done too, if all the VA work was done then maybe it could be used in some form to finish the story?

I never bought one of their games, although Sam and Max seemed fun. RIP

Edit: I had the Strongbad games on Wii. I hated buying the episodes separately.

Boooooooooooooo So sad

Ironically, I wasn't as interested in the newer series because they were all popular names that didn't appeal to me. It makes me wonder why they didn't do more Sam & Max, Strong Bad, or Monkey Island? They own two of those names, so licensing fees could be mute.

Still. shame to see an iconic studio crumble down this badly. I wish the laid off luck.

I enjoyed some of their older titles, specifically sam & max and the strongbad games on the Wii. The newer stuff never appealed to me though.

This is an expected outcome, since they bought so many licenses and put out way too many games, but at the same time really sad. Walking Dead fans are also getting a bad end since the final season is cancelled as well.

It sounds more akin to a studio closure. Then remaining 25 left to “fulfill obligations to the board” sounds like “finish an almost complete project so everything can then Be liquidated”

I've stopped playing their games a long time ago, sad for workers to lost their jobs though.

Their former employees will remember that.

RIP Wolf Among Us part 2. We hardly knew ye.

Ugh. I just sold my walking dead seasons 1 & 2 on the vita to upgrade on the switch. Will they drop season 2?!

maybe they will sell rights to their software's & contracts to other companies and some of the more popular games will continue, I know my 12 yr old daughter would be livid if minecraft was no more

They made some good stuff in the past but got too complacent with a never changing formula.

At this point, they're probably the most famous company for the use of "illusion of choice".

That said, I wonder if they're even going to finish the final season of their Walking Dead game at this point.

I also really liked they're unique portrayal of Batman, which had a heavy focus on Bruce as an actual character and not just "Batman's mask".

That's a real shame, I really enjoyed their earlier work.

Still have the sealed physical releases of the 3 sam and max seasons (you got a digital dl as well as physical copy when ordering direct from their store), loved puzzle agent, tales of monkey island, strongbad, even BTTF game was fun albeit lacking in puzzles.
For me when they moved onto current movie/tv tie-ins is when I lost interest, next to no puzzles just story and QTEs, the lowest form of gameplay (dont design a level that makes you need to press certain buttons, just tell the user to press them directly!). Jurassic park was an awful example of this.

All the best for the fired staff, it's sad what has happened to a formerly great company.

I was wondering why Minecraft Season 2 disappeared from the eShop. Now we know why.

@Tasuki Actually they will finish The Final Season

That being said, now there's no guarantee the quality will be consistent, as there are only 25 employees working on the company.

Nevermind, i saw some people saying they were continuing to develop the final season, but it turns out there is no official word.

Unfortunate to hear. I enjoyed the little of their games I played

@Tasuki
https://mixnmojo.com/news/Telltale-shuts-down

It was just a few weeks ago they were saying how they've let fans down in the past with their old game engine and how the new one will be so much better. I guess we'll never get to see this new engine.

I've never purchased any of their games yet but going by the way they've treated their staff, I'm kind of glad I never.

@Zach777 It's listed as November 6th at retailers. Could've just been delayed due to them figuring out this whole process, but otherwise it's gotta be finished at this rate.

@SinnohGeek

I hope so; I was looking forward to season 2!

Their games never resonated with me. I saw the praise, but the idea just seemed archaic

Go Ninty buy them

Sad to see them go... It's always sad to see such companies die out, meanwhile EA thrives..

@Tasuki Nevermind, i saw some people saying they were continuing to develop the final season, but it turns out there is no official word.

Truly sad to see a "collective" just watch and wait for a Dev/Pub just circle the drain and die just to pick it up for cheap then claim to be a savior at a much later date..

I'm sorry to hear about this. I hope those who are layoff will find a new job.

This is sad, specially for the last season of the walking dead.

Very big shame, always liked Telltale Games from my very first time playing The Walking Dead season one. I knew they were having issues due to overspending on expensive licenses like Game Of Thrones and Batman as well as issues in reusing outdated engines and gameplay, but I had no idea they were that far up the proverbial creek. Always a shame to see an employer overwork and mistreat employees to EA levels — there are certainly "crunch times" in the development world, Nintendo are a huge example of a developer with mega crunch times, but you have to actually respect the personal lives of your employees, can't just skate by with the usual nice-sounding DL-HR emails and no real actions being taken to protect the morale of the individual employee. Make them happy and they will want to put in the incredible hours you need to fulfill a deliverable and meet a deadline.

It is sad but I have to say that their business decisions never look right to me as their games were overpriced and never went on sale

No! This is such terrible news!

Aww, I wanted The Wolf Among Us and Game of Thrones season 2. The layoffs are the most devastating bit of news here, though. My heart goes out to the employees and their families. Much love.

Dang! Now I’ll never get Bone 3!

Wow that’s shocking!! I own the Batman game retail but I wonder if any of their games in the Switch eshop will be removed?? Maybe I should grab walking Dead before it’s too late!!
Meanwhile good luck to those who lost their jobs!

I guess this explains why the upcoming Switch release of Season 2 of Batman is digital-only...

I mean I'm not surprised considering that most of their game releases were almost just reskins of each other.

Honestly I've never finished any but TWD season one and two.

I feel bad for us more then the staff. We are the ones who spent money on their stuff thinking we were going to get full games. Now some of us have given a dying company money at the last minute, which did nothing expect ensure shareholders got paid. How can we get a refund for games we bought 2 weeks ago just to find out neither of those series will ever be complete? The staff will still get paid while they laid off and will find new jobs.

@Tasuki The batman games are finished on Switch, though depending on the choices you make season 2 can potentially end with a bit of a cliffhanger. I still enjoyed them quite a bit and would totally recommend them.

@BensonUii Mostly. Depending on the choices one make in Season 2 they can get a sort of cliffhanger ending, but frankly it's more of a tease for season 3 than anything else. Season 1 is pretty fun and season 2, while not perfect, is really ambitious and one of my personal favourite Telltale games. I would have loved more but if it ends here, I'm still pretty happy with it.

Incredible shame about the The Wolf Among Us 2. I had really looked forward to that. The first one is really one of my favourite games in the genre. True though about their engine ... I'm still not clear why despite all their success they never managed to migrate to something more modern and capable.

Damn, I was really looking forward to TWDs ending and I already bought it on Switch, looks like I wasted my money, don't think they'll refund if rumours of it not being finished are true.

@Balta666 where the hell did you look. The games went on sale multiple times.

sad but this been on cards for a while a saturation of games. Quality control out window. Massive expansion staff. and just too many bloody games. Only people blame is the managment of TT games. Shame but the quality of the games really went downhill.

I used to love Telltale games, the resurgence of adventure games, except in an episodic fashion. Then the The Walking Dead hit and they turned from proper adventure games to interactive movies and saturated the market with them. I lost interest.
Quantity over quality seemed to be their moniker and diminishing returns set in.
I guess the lesson in this is that even though you're really alone in a genre(interactive movies), doesn't mean you can rest on you laurels and just churn out the same crap over and over again.

While I liked The Wolf Among Us and the first season of Walking Dead a lot, I always prefered their earliest years. I was introduced to them via Bone: Out from Boneville. Sam & Max had a new home, I really enjoyed seeing Monkey Island get a last hurrah (in terms of a new story, not remasters), Strong Bad made me feel momentarily attractive, and I still remember Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures even after all this time.

The “interactive movie” era wasn’t as great for me, and finding out only now about the management hell really stinks, but I still bid Telltale good night. Best wishes, burned employees.

@Mrbayram92 not on switch that I can remember. I don't own any other consoles

And this is how I found out that the only Telltale Games game I will have on my Switch is the pinball one.

Aww, and I was going to get all the Walking Dead games once all of them were out, or at least the first three full seasons. If it's not going to be able to be completed now then I'll probably just pass...

So, let me get this straight, you can sustain a business by releasing the same game over and over again? Then how does EA still exist?!

Seriously though, sad to see anyone hit the unemployment line, but I was over Telltale's "games" sometime around Minecraft Story Mode. The two Batman titles were a big high point for me, but how many times can you really perform QTA actions and call it a "game?"

Oh wait, PS4 Spider-Man, I forgot. Man, bad luck Telltale...

Alexa... Don't play Despacito.

I am heartbroken I have been through everything with Clementine since the beginning and now I won’t get to see how it ends. Lee wouldn’t have wanted this.

People who are lamenting this is also the same people who said "I'm not paying this for these types of games" and "You should wait for a sale" in the past.

@Tirza Well you can feel sad for the people losing their jobs and not play their games.
I'm sort of like that, I miss their stuff prior to TWD, the proper adventure game stuff(Puzzles). But that company has been dead and gone for years, haven't played a TellTale game since the borderlands game some years ago.
Still sad its closing for the people out of a job in the Bay Area.

F

This is sad. I just hope this not another company going out of business not giving employees anything and then the ceo walks away with a ridiculous amount of cash when it is all done.

Their game engine and graphics had been terrible for years. Only the storytelling kept them interesting. Wolf Among Us and Tales From the Borderlands were excellent. I enjoyed the first season of Batman and plan to pick up the second at some point too. Walking Dead was very good, but my personal preference has always been for sci-fi and fantasy.

Well, THAT SUCKS!

Aren't these the guys that also do LEGO games??

Also what about Batman enemy Within on Nintendo switch??

@Bizzyb You are thinking of TT Games, formerly Travellers Tales. Different company altogether.

This is sad news to me indeed. I love(d) the telltale games back in the day, and some of the newer ones I bought and enjoyed, though it never touched the masterpieces of Monkey Island, Sam and Max or Back to the Future (of which I am biased because I love the film series more than life itself.) I used to buy every game they made back when it was like 1 new game every 1 or 2 years, but yeah they started releasing several in one year and it over-saturated the plots. I was even on the early adopters on the Telltale account website when I still played them on PC.

Sadly, it looks like Dontnod, the studio behind Life is Strange, is going to be my new favorite. I love that series, and after Quantic Dreams turned me away with Beyond: Two Souls they are really the only game in town that is worth my time for these kinds of games. I guess to be completely honest, after the poor excuse of a game that was TWD: A New Frontier, I won't be shedding too many tears for their struggle. But maybe if they can rekindle what made them so great in the beginning, they can win us back.

Can't say I like any off thier games, so never purchased any.

Some of the staff seem relieved, they were treated as sub humans. 7 day weeks, unpaid overtime that they were expected to do. Not being given enough time to make games, it was all about getting games out of the door as fast as possible. No communication from bosses or any organisation. Even now the communications guy hasn't been told what is going on, all he knows is he has 1 week left before he's gone. He wasn't told this was coming.

All of this isn't just happening at Telltale, it's a problem in the gaming industry as a whole, which is why they want unions.

A friend of mine was a game developer and I watched him go from being a happy outgoing guy, to a miserable recluse. Thankfully he got out and now develops software. He always wanted to make games, but good developers/publishers are few and far between.

I could never get into their choice-based games like TWD (fear of missing out is real) but I have had massive respect for Telltale ever since their hilarious work with Sam & Max. What a sad way to go out and I hope their staff move on to great things in the industry.

Can't help but think they relied on the same formula for too long...

@Bizzyb No, that's TT Games (formerly Travellers' Tales) who are owned by Warner Bros.

My wolf among us 2... S*** !

Stranger Things would've been awesome. If they managed to actually make a new engine sooner, maybe they'd still be around..

It sucks for everyone who lost their jobs. I do expect some kind of sale... I'd buy a heavily discounted Batman and The Walking Dead...

@FTPinkRabbit Thanks a bunch! Now I'll just wait for the inevitable sale

Seems like some horrible decisions from management. They made a lot of good games.

It's probably like Atari before the video game crash. They expected huge sales of a licensed game and didn't make nearly what they expected. Don't bet on big properties always making big sales.

@antster1983 Ah I see. Thanks I got those two mixed up

That's what you get when you do the exact same thing for too long. People might get sick of it.