“I’m sorry we won’t be able to share it with you.”

It’s a sad day for the gaming world, as Telltale Studios is reportedly shutting its doors for good. The news comes as a shock, as Telltale are a well-known and respected company in the video game industry. It has also been reported that none of the almost 250 laid-off employees will receive severance pay.

Update 3: Check out our newest article for an update on The Walking Dead’s completion and the situation regarding the employees and Netflix’s planned Stranger Things game.

Update 2: It has been reported that the entire ‘The Walking Dead’ team has been laid off, and the remaining ‘skeleton crew’ at Telltale will only be finishing Minecraft Story Mode for Netflix. Pretty much confirming the cancellation of The Walking Dead’s Final Season.

Update: A full statement has now been made by Telltale Studios –

The statement, issued by CEO Pete Hawley, confirms that Telltale are going through a majority studio closure, and that a product portfolio will be released in the coming weeks. We will also soon see more details on the state of the currently releasing, ‘The Walking Dead’.

Telltale co-founder Kevin Bruner, has made a post on his personal blog on the closure. Bruner was let go as the CEO about a year and a half ago, but gave his thoughts on the situation: “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.

I know that Telltale will be remembered fondly for what it has done best.”

The blog post implies that Telltale’s board of directors may have green lit projects that led to nowhere, forcing the company into the position it is in now.

Telltale are well known for some of gaming’s greatest story based series’, such as ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Batman’, ‘The Wolf Among Us’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Tales from the Borderlands’.

It has also been reported that both the upcoming Stranger Things game and the long-awaited sequel to The Wolf Among Us have been cancelled, which will leave many fans upset over the news.

The Final Season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead is being released right now, but one sadly now-former writer, Emily Grace Buck, has implied that it is possible that the series will end its run without a proper conclusion.

Another of the former lead writers at Telltale, Jessica Krause, has commented on the entire situation (for the full story, visit her Twitter account). Krause also commented on the status of The Wolf Among Us 2, pretty much confirming its cancellation.

Many former employees from Telltale have made their way to Twitter, using #Telltalejobs in order to find new positions elsewhere, and bring awareness to the situation.

A few big names in the industry including Zenimax, PLAYERUNKNOWN, Cory Barlog of Sony Santa Monica, Gearbox Studios and many more, have posted job opportunities on Twitter due to the situation.

Even voice actor Troy Baker, known for his many roles within the gaming industry and many of Telltale’s games, has commented on the situation.

Employees and fans alike are rightfully distraught over the situation. We hope that the hard-working people from Telltale can find work again very soon. We hope more game companies out there will offer opportunities to those who find themselves without a job today. If you want to help, spread awareness using the #Telltalejobs to companies on Twitter, and other social media sites.

By Jimmy Ioannou

Images provided by Telltale Games

3 thoughts

  1. Pingback: Telltale Release Further Update on Closure, Looking for Solution to Complete Final Season of ‘The Walking Dead’! (Update on Netflix’s Stranger Things Game) – Reverbium
  2. Pingback: Telltale’s The Walking Dead Will be Finished by Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Games! – Reverbium
  3. Pingback: ‘Borderlands 3’ Reveal Trailer Released, ‘Borderlands GOTY’ Announced! – Reverbium

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s