The Walking Dead studio Telltale hit with layoffs

Telltale Games, creators of episodic adventure games like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Batman: The Enemy Within, laid off a large number of its staff. The company will retain a small team of around 25.

[Thatguy-310]

Not surprised. The branching narrative experience that they made were always smoke and mirrors since a lot of the story stayed the same no matter the choices one makes through the game. They kept picking up different established IP's without properly giving them quality work time. For the most part they were making cash grab mediocre content that they expected to sale solely based off on the name alone.

[-Foxtrot]

Exactly

Shame. Maybe if they didn't rely so much on latching onto franchises which are popular thinking tthey'd make an easy buck on that alone while releasing game after game with the same old similar gameplay then maybe they could have evolved a little to survive.

What bugged me is they got an easy pass review wise, some of the things they'd call other games for they'd let go with TT games. The excuse is "well if it has an alright story"...AND? Triple A games like Bioshock or the Last of Us had fantastic stories and guess what? They had great gameplay and decent long replay value.

I remember Heavy Rain getting nitpicked a little in reviews yet something like the Walking Dead which did things worse then Heavy Rain ended up getting Game of the Year.

[coolbeans]

"I remember Heavy Rain getting nitpicked a little in reviews yet something like the Walking Dead which did things worse then Heavy Rain ended up getting Game of the Year."

1.) Heavy Rain came out in 2011, TWD: Season 1 came out 2012 so there's different levels of competition.

2.) Heavy Rain still received a great critical score and many accolades.

3.) TWD certainly didn't do narrative worse than Heavy Rain.

[P_Bomb]

Sad. I’ve finished many of their games, as early as 2011 all the way up to Batman:Enemy Within this year. Will grab the last season of TWD when it’s complete and on sale. Their gradual implosion truly sounds like the enemy was within. No matter what choices they made, the end was gonna be the same https://www.theverge.com/20... :(

[coolbeans]

Hmmm...

But I think it's fair to consider what they were going for by having a more "authored" narrative experience. The choices were focused on highlighting YOU, as the player-character, and testing your morals for a given situation instead of having huge consequences to the ending. I'm not saying they always established that well in their games, nor do I disagree with other parts of your comment, but I think there's a disregard for the intent of TT's design philosophy.

[BioShockGX]

Stranger things and the wolf among us 2 are canceled. RIP.

[Shikoku]

Balls!!!

[monkey602]

Not just layoffs the studio seems to be confirmed to close down after the Walking Dead finishes up

[thatguyhayat]

Yeah this is officially the studios been closed. Im seeing on twitter devs wishing them the best and such

[P_Bomb]

Yeah the studio is gone. They’re only keeping 25 peeps to fulfill their obligations to the board and business partners who I presume to mean Sony, MS, Nintendo, Windows. The season passes are paid for. Once they’re in the clear, last one to leave turns out the lights.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

From over 300 employees to 25. Telltale will close down after finishing their current projects.

[ps3vita4life]

Man that really sucks. As much as I feel that mistakes were made in their recent games, I can’t deny the important place they occupy in the games industry. I was really looking forward to Wolf among us 2. I hope everyone affected finds new jobs and is able to continue their style of storytelling in other games.

[StormLegend]

Noooo!!! This sucks!! RIP to this amazing studio. Made some amazing games.

[Artemidorus]

Taking the money and running.

[Silly gameAr]

Well, this blows. I didn't know things were so rough for telltale.

[zielocz3k]

I always buy their games on sale as complete season, i dont like buying 1 episode and waiting few months for others

[Blastoise]

There's talented people at Telltale but after a while I stopped caring about their games. Their engine was ancient and they seemed to rest of their laurels rather than take the time to improve their formula

[LiamKreptic]

And now I’ll never get a resolution to the cliff hanger of GoT, no continuation of Tales from the Borderlands, no Wolf, no new Batman. I enjoyed their games a lot...I wish those who have been laid off a bright future!

[Name Last Name]

damn GoT was looking good

[1060FX8300]

Sony should buy them and bring them into the PlayStation first-party family. They have so much potential, all they need is a clear focus on one IP and a larger budget.

[Araragifeels]

Imagine with a Detroit like engine and budget, they could make a bigger and better game.

[Thatguy-310]

Sony should buy Quantic Dream.

[1060FX8300]

Quantic Dream are terrible IMO. I don't like any of their games.
Telltale aren't perfect but they did give us The Walking Dead season 1 and The Wolf Among Us which are masterpieces compared to anything QD has ever done IMO. Would rather have Sony buy Telltale and cut Quantic Dream off in an ideal world.

[deathtok]

Shame to hear this, loved the start with Monkey Island. Sadly I’ve been vocally unhappy with some layer output but never wanted to see this...

[Knightofelemia]

Damn I am going to miss them I loved a lot of their games from The Walking Dead series, The Wolf Among Us. Would be nice if a big studio bought them up with their ip's and continues their games.

[Elda]

Guessing their formula has become stale & not many are buying their games anymore.

[Mylove1516]

Hate to see this but it was expected. when you make the same game but with a different theme for how long now? People will lose interest eventually. I hope the ones affected will find new jobs that gives them a wider and more diverse portfolio.

[Spurg]

Telltales games would be perfect for Gamepass. Ms should acquire them considering they are not doing so well. This would be an excellent additional to MS's portfolio.

[Ricegum]

It's suits Sony far better, since Microsoft are beyond awful with narrative based games.

[Spurg]

Hmmm...so we complain about ms not having deep narrative based games and when they have a chance to acquire one, we suddenly say it doesn't suit them.
Quite confusing TBH.

[rainslacker]

I dunno. Seems like a rather high expenditure to buy the studio, when most of what they have in their portfolio is licensed work.

Maybe hiring some of the people there who managed to create and design their better games, but it'd be easy enough for MS to do their own licensing of the IP's if they so desired.

TT has a couple of their own IP's, but they'll likely be able to be brought cheap enough since they haven't done much with them in a long time, and they were around before they really became popular, so those IP's really aren't worth as much.

I'm afraid that TT is destined to no longer be around after they finish up TWD:TFS.

[coleman984]

They didn't innovate. They kept making the same game over and over again. And no one cared.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

I once heard but that Telltale’s financial issues are due to them paying for so many licenses. Telltale may have been better of making Moreno original properties, but it likely too late now. Also, Telltale got a a lot of free passes on the technical performance of their games.

[Sirk7x]

Shit! Wolf Among Us was so good :/

[kevnb]

Well honestly they were making way too many similar games.