Telltale Games: The Final Chapter
Telltale Games is a video game company based in California, founded in October 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, and Troy Molander. The gaming company handles its interactive movie-like games in which players choose the outcome of certain events. These games include titles such as The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, and Minecraft: Story Mode. The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us were expecting new seasons in 2019.
In the past year, Telltale Games had experienced setbacks. In March of 2017, co-founder and CEO Kevin Bruner was laid off, and Peter Hawley was promoted in his place. Then, in November of 2017, 90 employees were dismissed. What happened next was unexpected. On September 21, 2018, Telltale Games announced that they would be closing their doors at the month’s end. After a hastily scheduled company-wide meeting, 250 employees were told that Telltale Games would be shutting its doors at the end of the month. Twenty-five employees would stay on board to tie loose ends and then the gaming company would retire forever. The following statement was left by CEO Peter Hawley:
Today Telltale Games made the difficult decision to begin a majority studio closure following a year marked by insurmountable challenges. A majority of the company’s employees were dismissed earlier this morning, with a small group of 25 employees staying on to fulfill the company’s obligations to its board and partners. CEO Pete Hawley issued the following statement:
“It’s been an incredibly difficult year for Telltale as we worked to set the company on a new course. Unfortunately, we ran out of time trying to get there. We released some of our best content this year and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but ultimately, that did not translate to sales. With a heavy heart, we watch our friends leave today to spread our brand of storytelling across the games industry.”
Telltale will issue further comments regarding its product portfolio in the coming weeks.
While Telltale is writing its final chapter, there is still hope that some of its titles may still be released on schedule, particularly the much anticipated final season of The Walking Dead but there is talk that this responsibility may be passed on to another gaming company if Telltale can find one. However, highly anticipated titles such as The Wolf Among Us: Season Two and Stranger Things will not be released.
Fans were saddened to hear this news, posting all over Twitter and other gaming forums to lament about the loss of Telltale Games and the titles they enjoyed. A former employee passed on a message through The Verge saying, “The things that you love are made by people. We’re people just like you. We’re people that are living paycheck to paycheck, working our asses off to make the content that you love. Enjoy the content that you have … but don’t forget the people that made it.”
With as much attention as Telltale Games is receiving in the gaming community, it is easy to say that they will not soon be forgotten.
