The end of Telltale games: all the updates about the fall of the studio – The Verge

Telltale Games is coming back under new ownership

2019-08-28T09:00:43-04:00

Telltale Games is getting a second life. After a tragic and well-publicized decline, the game studio - best known for adaptations of series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones - is coming back after a group of investors purchased the company's assets with plans to relaunch. The new Telltale Games will be helmed by Jamie Ottilie and Brian Waddle, two industry veterans with experience primarily in mobile gaming and the technology side. "We believe there is still so much life to the brand and its franchises, and we look forward to building upon the company's storytelling legacy," Ottilie said in a statement.

The new studio will operate o …

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Minecraft: Story Mode is being pulled from stores on June 25th

2019-06-02T14:42:45-04:00

Minecraft developer Mojang has announced that support for Minecraft: Story Mode is ending, and that players will have until June 25th, 2019, to download their episodes. The game's delisting follows the disappearance of other games created by Telltale Games, which abruptly shut down last year.

Mojang says that because of Telltale's closure, the game will no longer be supported as of June, and that players who purchased it will need to make sure to download it before it's taken down for good. The game is the latest of Telltale's creations to be pulled from stores: at the end of May, Kotaku reported that games such as Tales from the Borderland …

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Telltale Games is reportedly closing down for good as games disappear

2018-11-15T05:42:35-05:00

Telltale Games is reportedly closing for good and selling off all its assets, according to a report by GameDaily. The co-founder of Sherwood Partners confirmed to the site that it would be handling the liquidation, and a former employee reported that their post employment healthcare insurance will stop at the end of November rather than after 18 months as was expected. Copies of the "Assignment for the benefit of creditors" agreement (a non-court process similar to bankruptcy) and letters to creditors have also emerged, and a number of the company's games are no longer for sale on Steam.

The developments bring to an end the slow decline of …

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Skybound Games will finish the final season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead

2018-10-07T09:00:15-04:00

The final season of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead game will be completed. The failed studio reached a deal with Skybound Games to finish the season, the development of which was halted when the studio laid off most of its employees at the end of September.

At New York City Comic Con, Kirkman told a panel that his company had come to a deal with Telltale to complete the story. According to Variety, Skybound will work with "members of the original Telltale team to finish the story," although that hasn't been finalized yet.

In a tweet, Skybound Games - the gaming division of Skybound Media, which was founded by The Walking Dead creator Rob …

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The tragic end of Telltale Games

2018-10-04T09:27:56-04:00

When employees showed up for work on Friday, September 21st, at Telltale Games, there was nothing to suggest the day would be different than any other. The second episode of The Walking Dead's final season would ship the following week; developers across multiple teams were busy with plans for in-progress titles.

But only hours later, 250 people would find themselves with no job, no severance, and health insurance that would be gone by month's end - just nine days.

The woes of Telltale Games have deep roots. Earlier this year, The Verge published a report detailing years of nonstop crunch culture, toxic management, and frustration from dev …

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Former Telltale devs share the best goofs you never saw

2018-09-29T10:00:02-04:00

Telltale Games as we know it ceases to exist. The studio laid off a devastating majority of its staff - around 250 people - last week in response to financial troubles. Many of its projects are effectively canceled. The future of a few others, like The Walking Dead's final season, remain up in the air. Those who loved the studio's work have been reminiscing over the past week, and in addition to fans sharing their favorite moments, many former developers have used the studio's closure as an opportunity to share internal jokes.

Campo Santo developer Jake Rodkin, who worked on the first season of The Walking Dead, posted several videos to a Y …

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Telltale pulls The Walking Dead’s final season from sale

2018-09-26T09:02:25-04:00

The final season of Telltale's The Walking Dead is no longer for sale. According to the game's GoG page, Telltale requested "a temporary pause of sales." The game can't be purchased on Steam or via console either.

Last week, the company suddenly laid off around 250 employees as part of what it called a "majority studio closure." Staff were let go without severance. A small crew of 25 remains at the company to "to fulfill the company's obligations to its board and partners." In a statement to The Verge, the company says it has removed season passes from stores "for the time being."

"We're currently still working to find a way to hand off pr …

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Telltale under fire for prioritizing The Walking Dead conclusion in wake of mass layoffs

2018-09-25T14:57:37-04:00

Developer Telltale Games, maker of the popular episodic narrative games The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, is still dealing with the aftermath of an effective studio closure last Friday that saw around 250 employees, or 90 percent of its workforce, laid off without severance. Now, the studio says it's shopping around the final season of The Walking Dead to third-party partners in hopes of appeasing fans eager for a conclusion to the saga that began in 2012 as an original spinoff of the graphic novel and TV show.

The second episode of the fourth and final season is due out this week, but Telltale has neither the finances nor developer t …

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Remembering Telltale Games

2018-09-24T11:32:21-04:00

The Walking Dead.

Six years ago, on a cold November day, I was forced to make the most difficult decision a video game had ever presented me with. I was playing the fifth and final episode of The Walking Dead's debut season, and though I had long predicted how things would play out, it didn't make it any easier when the moment arrived. A beloved character was beginning to turn into an undead monster, and he wanted me to kill him. All I had to do was press a button - but I labored over the decision, unsure about how actually killing someone, even someone about the become a zombie, would affect me. Eventually, I pulled the trigger, but it wasn't easy. Six years …

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The Walking Dead developer Telltale hit with devastating layoffs as part of a ‘majority studio closure’

2018-09-21T15:30:26-04:00

Telltale Games, creators of episodic adventure games like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Batman: The Enemy Within, laid off approximately 250 employees today as part of what the company is calling a "majority studio closure." According to multiple sources The Verge spoke with, employees were let go with no severance.

"Today Telltale Games made the difficult decision to begin a majority studio closure following a year marked by insurmountable challenges," the company said in a statement. "A majority of the company's employees were dismissed earlier this morning." The company will retain a small team of 25. These remaining employees …

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