Sad Ending : Telltale Games

I have really enjoyed several of their titles – especially the original Walking Dead series and The Wolf Among Us.

The company is effectively shutting down after finishing off the latest Walking Dead game.

Oddly enough, there isn’t a reason given that I have read. Mashable has a story up.

It seemed like a successful company with a lot of acclaimed titles – big names too – including Game of Thrones and Batman, discover more games in this link.

I can only guess that the cost of licencing must have been a downfall. Either that or mismanagement.

As always, best of luck to the 225 people laid off (from 250) finding work to support yourselves and your families.

According to Telltale Games, the studio is now using a new engine–Unreal–as they begin production on a number of new titles. Among the new games Telltale is working on is The Wolf Among Us 2, the highly-anticipated sequel to 2013’s The Wolf Among Us. After going into pre-production in 2019, the studio has at last entered production on the game, developing the entire season at once.

In addition, Telltale has also announced its partnered with Deck Nine Games to work on The Expanse: A Telltale Series, a narrative-driven game set in the world of the Amazon series by the same name. Telltale said it will share more about the game in the upcoming issue of Game Informer, as well as a bit more about The Wolf Among Us 2.

This end of the year update comes two years after the company announced its “rebirth” following the studio closing back in 2018. While the studio shuttering was devastating, it was hardly unexpected considering Telltale’s history of layoffs and lawsuits, which you can read about in our complete timeline detailing what happened to the Northern California studio.

As such, there’s already been a concern raised over the current pace of Telltale’s operations, as part of what led to its closure was how stretched thin its employees were. Telltale has already addressed these comments, writing, “One of the foundations of the new Telltale is sustainable production. We are focusing on doing this smarter (and better). Take our teaming up with Deck Nine to create The Expanse.”

5 comments / Add your comment below

  1. My wife is completing her degree in accounting. There have been a few courses on business accounting. And reading through a lot of the course material, I would have to say probably bad business planning. People think that companies get away with a lot as far as the IRS goes. That’s really far from the truth, unless they are very smart, they can owe a great deal every year in taxes. It’s great to think you’re making money hand over fist, until the tax bill, health care, state taxes, it’s an endless outlay of cash.

    1. Looking at the statement it appears they were trying to change the structure of the company which I’ve learned is a very costly thing to do. It’s a shame, but what I’ve learned about creating a business is that you really need to know what you foresee in the business 5-10 years down the road.

    2. I run a business in Canada, where our effective corporate tax rate pushes 40% and personal income taxes over 200k push 50%. We know taxes well and have to operate with that.

      Still, the living standards and health care is very much worth it – although our current government is (like many others) amazing at waste.

      I still wouldn’t trade it just hope future governments are a bit more fiscally responsible.

  2. Seems that rumors are pointing to licensing costs being higher than the game returns. Which would go with poor financial planning if this applies to more than 2 or 3 releases.

    Hope the majority land on their feet quickly.

    1. Those games will gwmwrgen revenue for years to come. Curious where that goes in the end. Thierry stories are very well done and a shame they couldn’t stick to smaller brands with story depth. They licenced some of the biggest IP that exist on a niche gaming style.

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