Telltale Games Hit With Major Layoffs As Part of a 'Majority Studio Closure' (theverge.com) 95
Telltale Games, the video game developer behind The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Batman: The Enemy Within, laid off a large number of its staff today. According to The Verge, "the company will retain a small team of 25." From the report: "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 remaining employees will stay on "to fulfill the company's obligations to its board and partners," according to Telltale. Staff were informed of the layoffs today and were given roughly 30 minutes to leave the building, according to one source.
Telltale had previously announced a second season of The Wolf Among Us and a game based off of Netflix's wildly popular show Stranger Things. The company has not yet commented on the status of those projects, though the outcome seems dire. On Twitter, one former lead writer wrote, "I'm so sad we won't be able to show you all Wolf." The layoffs come a few months after revelations that Telltale was a studio mired in toxic management that included employees being subjected to constant overwork. Once an industry darling that worked on iconic brands like Game of Thrones and Minecraft, Telltale quickly spiraled.
Telltale had previously announced a second season of The Wolf Among Us and a game based off of Netflix's wildly popular show Stranger Things. The company has not yet commented on the status of those projects, though the outcome seems dire. On Twitter, one former lead writer wrote, "I'm so sad we won't be able to show you all Wolf." The layoffs come a few months after revelations that Telltale was a studio mired in toxic management that included employees being subjected to constant overwork. Once an industry darling that worked on iconic brands like Game of Thrones and Minecraft, Telltale quickly spiraled.
Alas (Score:1)
That's a damn shame. Poker Night at the Inventory taught me that I actually like poker.
Very Sad (Score:3)
I was *really* looking forward to the second season of The Wolf Among Us. It seemed like they were doing so well...
I wonder if they ended up squandering a lot of money chasing big names, licenses to use properties like The Walking Dead and Stranger Things can't have come cheap. Maybe they burned up too much capital on those without getting the traction they needed from sales.
I thought they always did an excellent job with story and gameplay in the stuff I played from them, so I hope all those laid off can find other work they like.
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so I hope all those laid off can find other work they like.
Whenever a studio closes down, there's typically a flurry of recruitment activity. After I finish this post, I'm going to send a quick reminder to contact my current contracting company and client recruiters on Monday. It's partly to try to help fellow industry devs, of course, but its also a great opportunity to grab some experienced people you might not have otherwise tempted away from their current job.
I've been in their shoes, and yeah, it stinks. I've had one game studio close under me, and one lar
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We already have an awesome Stranger Things game on Android and IOS.
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I'll have to look for that...
Hmm, I also see a "Stranger Upside Down" game, I wonder what that could be meant to remind people of.
Let's get to the important part... (Score:2)
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Very good question... sources may indicate no [usgamer.net]:
We previously reported that a skeleton crew will remain behind to complete work on The Walking Dead Final Season. That information was inaccurate. Sources who wish to remain anonymous explained that there is a skeleton crew at Telltale, but they will be working on the Minecraft Story Mode project for Netflix. In fact, The Walking Dead team was also laid off today and The Walking Dead Final Season will not be completed.
This matches with the statement issued by Telltale games where the company promised to "fulfill the company's obligations to its board and partners." Our sources say The Walking Dead Final Season is set to end after the second episode launches next week.
Though I'm not sure that makes any sense, I mean they've already sold the full season and it's not a bankruptcy (yet). So if they don't deliver, I expect massive refund demands that will undoubtedly kill it. But I'm not sure they care, the news story said they were all let go without severance. Basically we're toast, doesn't matter what bridges we burn now...
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This matches with the statement issued by Telltale games where the company promised to "fulfill the company's obligations to its board and partners." Our sources say The Walking Dead Final Season is set to end after the second episode launches next week.
Though I'm not sure that makes any sense, I mean they've already sold the full season and it's not a bankruptcy (yet). So if they don't deliver, I expect massive refund demands that will undoubtedly kill it
Well now, I guess the question then becomes, what makes an episode? Could they simply say that whatever they release is a combination episode 2-4? If not, could they simply add arbitrary break points in whatever they plan to release?
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>Are they gonna finish Walking Dead????
Apparently not. They will be keeping 25 employees on to finish the Miecraft thing they're working on, though.
They'll remember that (Score:4, Insightful)
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You're not going to get anything deeper until we get AI that can pass the Turing test.
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AI isn't needed, just more writing animating and voice acting.
They did, to some extent. They had a few choices that had deep impact, like in Game of Thrones, the last act of the game was split in two, depending on which main character you chose to sacrifice. And there were smaller touches here and there reflected your choices. And each dialog prompt got a different response, depending on what you chose.
But it would have been impossibly expensive to have every choice matter in a deeply satisfying way. You'd need an exponential tree of crafted responses.
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The chapter release system might help, but the schedule of the chapter releases was significant part of what was killing the studio--here's a very good article about what was going on there for a long time [theverge.com], and from some of the various articles about Telltale shutting down, I suspect that the shutdown is ultimately the result of the issues the article brings up. They did try to fix things, but...clearly, the damage was already fatal.
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Impossibly expensive? Yeah right.
My wife and I played quite a few Telltale games together and even enjoyed a few of them, like The Wolf Among Us and the one based on Borderlands. But we firmly decided to never replay them, because it was clear that nothing you do really matters, and having it rubbed in our faces on a second run would diminish the memories.
Compare that to the Witcher 2, where the last two acts can be unrecognizable, depending on your choices in the previous acts. And that game came half a
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How much did Witcher 2 cost to purchase? It was sold as a AAA game. Telltale was a small studio that sold their games for $25.
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You're not going to get anything deeper until we get AI that can pass the Turing test.
Maybe, but there are an awful lot of people running around nowadays that couldn't pass the Turing test.
Re: They'll remember that (Score:2)
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A "choose your own adventure" book has multiple endings. Many open world games like the Witcher have multiple outcomes. Other similar interactive fiction games like Life is Strange, Heavy Rain etc. managed story arcs / branches.
Life is Strange is an odd one to bring up because it was as shallow as Telltale Games. They were basically a "me too" Telltale game, except threw in the reverse time mechanic.
Re: They'll remember that (Score:2)
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It still has more meaningful choice than the typical TT game.
Like what? The only really meaningful choice was what ending you chose.
And it was produced on a shoestring, had episodic content etc.
Sooo, it was like a Telltale game?
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Like what? The only really meaningful choice was what ending you chose.
Life is Strange has been sitting in my Steam library for years, waiting to be played - which I hopefully will at some point.
I want to take a moment and thank you, fellow Slashdot user, for the considerate manner in which you chose to keep this little argument spoiler free.
Sometimes, people should just stop and say thanks, to make the Internet a better place.
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Life is Strange has been sitting in my Steam library for years, waiting to be played - which I hopefully will at some point.
It's a good game. I had my doubts about the young girl drama theme, but I really enjoyed it.
I want to take a moment and thank you, fellow Slashdot user, for the considerate manner in which you chose to keep this little argument spoiler free.
I didn't really think about it, so I guess you got lucky. I generally avoid discussions of games/movies if I want to play/watch them at some point.
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You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. AAA titles? You could buy a whole series for like $25. Shovelware? No, they had quality writers, and while the artwork was obviously not meant to be AAA, it was good for what it was. Either you liked Telltale style of games or you didn't. But the gamers who didn't went out of their way to hate on their games.
Sadly this was expected (Score:3)
Telltale games were very new and fresh when first walking dead came out. They looked like you had a huge amount of impact on the story by acting in certain ways at certain points, which was reinforced with many psychological tricks.
Problem is, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me". Once you tried to replay these games for a few times, you understood the underlying mechanisms tricking you into thinking that you had an impact when you really didn't have all that much. So the next game, you came armed with this knowledge, reducing the enjoyment. And this effect cumulated rapidly.
So it was inevitable that eventually most people who were in the target audience got mighty bored of essentially being constantly tricked into thinking that their actions matter when they really don't. And so, sales tanked. They had a good run though, and I think most of us still remember the first walking dead with some degree of warmth, as is the case with the wolf among us.
The final nail in the coffin was the blatant cash grabs with new episodes that were clearly just there to cash in. I guess that killed whatever was left of any good will from the customers.
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Actually, you don't. The games were marketed early on specifically on "your choice matters" and "find out what happens if you choose differently".
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It's much worse. It invalidates the psychological trick, and it makes user feel tricked at the same time. It's a short term positive and long term negative action.
And in long term, this studio is going under.
Re: Sadly this was expected (Score:1)
I've heard that before, but on the other hand, it means people thought the games were worth replaying in the first place.
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One of the key sets psychological tricks used in telltale game formula is specifically "you should find what happens if you chose differently at those specific points we'll show you after the ending of each episode".
Re: Sadly this was expected (Score:1)
If that is the case, I retract my comment.
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Once you tried to replay these games for a few times, you understood the underlying mechanisms tricking you into thinking that you had an impact when you really didn't have all that much. So the next game, you came armed with this knowledge, reducing the enjoyment. And this effect cumulated rapidly.
Sure, it would have been nice if all those choices could have had deep impact that molded the story. But practically we know that with today's tech this was basically impossible, because they made finely crafted stories, with quality writers and voice actors. So you either accepted it for what it was, and enjoyed the games on its terms, or you stopped playing.
The final nail in the coffin was the blatant cash grabs with new episodes that were clearly just there to cash in. I guess that killed whatever was left of any good will from the customers.
Could be. They did seem to expand pretty fast into several new series. I personally stopped buying their games after testing out Batman, which played
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I think we're in agreement. I mention that I enjoyed the first two as well in my opener.
Problem being, this formula got stale, and you don't seem to have gotten any of their newer games either.
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I didn't get their newer games because of my experience with Batman, as mentioned. Older laptop, new engine performed poorly on it. Their engine performance for their first Batman was a common complaint on Steam reviews, by the way.
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You appear to be forgetting the topic, that being this company going under. It seems that even if you're right about "this not being a right game for me", same applied even to the adventure game fans.
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Notice how I didn't point out a single issue with gameplay.
You're projecting.
They had a few good games, sad (Score:2)
Never did walking dead or game of thrones.
Did do Monkey's island, Sam and Max, Wolf Among Us, and Poker Night... sad they're closing shop.
30 minutes? (Score:3)
I have so much food, drinks, and spare shoes/suits in my desk, being out of the building in 30 minutes would be impossible. Why did this management team have to be such dicks? (When I was laid-off from Lockheed, they gave us from 8 am to 5pm... basically all day... to clear-out our stuff.)
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In a management heavy company riddled with poor decision making they likely realize that someone would come back into the office to enact revenge of the exorbitantly paid management that bead the company dry.
From what I can tell, that part of the management's long gone--the question for a while has been more of if they managed to do it in time to save the company. We now know that, well, nope.
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It doesn't have to be that way, but that's probably just more indications of poor management.
When I was laid off at a game company I worked for many years ago, one morning the company was split into two meetings, the folks being laid off, and everyone else, although we obviously only found this out at the meeting. The CEO came in to talk to us personally, was very straight with us about what was happening and why, and took time to answer all our questions. We were given the time we needed to clear things
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one morning the company was split into two meetings, the folks being laid off, and everyone else, although we obviously only found this out at the meeting.
I remember this happening at a medical company I worked for. It was very awkward in the non laid off group. We had to stay shut in the meeting room until the people who were laid off were out of the building. So it was just kind of an awkward silence for 30 minutes of everyone feeling a little guilty and bad (and you could hear some of the ladies who had been laid off walking past the meeting room and crying).
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Why did this management team have to be such dicks?
There's nothing "dick" about it. Expediting getting rid of people limits the amount of damage a disgruntled person can do. Usually you don't actually need to clean out your desk, your food, drink, and suits will be waiting for you to pick up at the reception tomorrow.
Fortune teller (Score:2)
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I bet the executives made out (Score:2)
How much money was spent on high-end salaries?
shame (Score:2)
The telltale games are the only ones I've ever played where it showed you a comparison of your choices to moral dilemmas to those of other players.
One in particular I found most interesting was where you decided the fate of a character that was endangering the group due to their own stupidity. An overwhelming majority of players decided to show compassion, leading to some thoughtful contemplation as to those who did not.
Giving people reason to reflect upon the nature of their choices isn't something you
Was wondering when this was going to happen (Score:2)
This wasn't entirely obvious a few years ago? (Score:3)
Then Telltale pulled a Lego... by that, I mean that they decided to forfeit their revenue to other companies which had nothing to offer besides branding.
Consider that a movie is a movie... movies are not choose your own adventure story telling systems. They are written in a linear fashion and the result was that Telltale was doing little more than producing movies with "click next to continue" for other peoples stories.
I believe the Telltale had a great format before they started wasting all their money on trying to be a movie studio instead of a game studio. Extended cut scenes were pissing me off and I couldn't bring myself to waste my time playing more than a few minutes of a game... which wasn't a game so much as a "Watch the really long cut scene and then click 5 things and watch another cut scene" format.
I sincerely hope that Telltale manages to go back to basics and stops wasting time and money on making this crappy format. There is a place in this world for fun to play adventure games. They had it... they lost it. Time to scrub the schools to find talented script writers who love the format and then mock them up and perform some market research. As Telltell has proven, it's possible to make short episodes on a schedule. If they make a good story, they could instead start with a game and then get someone like Netflix to buy the rights to the story instead.
EAT THE CHILD! (Score:2)
They need to listen to the memes and eat the damn child.
This company used to spam Tumblr with ads for their TWD game using art of a man, a child, and a small amount of food, asking the viewer of the ad what the man should do, which of course would require buying the game to answer. But the Tumblr users, sick of seeing the stupid ad all the time, helpfully suggested the man should eat the child and his food issues would be solved for quite a while.
Maybe the company should have realized, nobody was saying b