Telltale Games Hit With Major Layoffs As Part of a 'Majority Studio Closure' (theverge.com)

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Telltale Games Hit With Major Layoffs As Part of a 'Majority Studio Closure' (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Friday September 21, 2018 @10:40AM from the downward-spiral dept.

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.

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Alas by Presence+Eternal · 2018-09-21 10:46 · Score: 1

That's a damn shame. Poker Night at the Inventory taught me that I actually like poker.
Very Sad by SuperKendall · 2018-09-21 10:50 · Score: 2

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.

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Re:Very Sad by Dutch+Gun · 2018-09-21 13:05 · Score: 1
  
  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 large layoff round which I got caught up in. I managed to find new jobs in the same area without much problem, and this was before I had nearly the experience I do now. So, sure, it's going to cause a lot of anxiety for some of them, but I think they're likely to land on their feet.
  
  --
  Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
2. Re:Very Sad by Darinbob · 2018-09-21 13:44 · Score: 1
  
  We already have an awesome Stranger Things game on Android and IOS.
3. Re:Very Sad by SuperKendall · 2018-09-21 13:49 · Score: 1
  
  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.
  
  --
  "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Let's get to the important part... by Daemonik · 2018-09-21 10:52 · Score: 1

Are they gonna finish Walking Dead???? Cause we need moar Clem!
1. Re:Let's get to the important part... by Kjella · 2018-09-21 11:58 · Score: 1
  
  Very good question... sources may indicate no:
  
  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...
  
  --
  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
2. Re:Let's get to the important part... by Daemonik · 2018-09-21 12:29 · Score: 1
  
  In one way, it's sad, I'd have liked to see the end of the story. In another way, if they were gonna kill my baby Clem I'm glad they closed down first. >.>
3. Re:Let's get to the important part... by Golddess · 2018-09-21 15:06 · Score: 1
  
  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?
  
  --
  "I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
4. Re:Let's get to the important part... by Blue+Stone · 2018-09-22 06:05 · Score: 1
  
  >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.
  
  --
  Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
They'll remember that by DrXym · 2018-09-21 10:52 · Score: 3, Insightful

Or rather it'll lead to an inconsequential cutscene or line of dialogue.
1. Re:They'll remember that by Raenex · 2018-09-21 12:18 · Score: 1
  
  You're not going to get anything deeper until we get AI that can pass the Turing test.
2. Re:They'll remember that by Riceballsan · 2018-09-21 12:41 · Score: 1
  
  AI isn't needed, just more writing animating and voice acting.
3. Re:They'll remember that by Raenex · 2018-09-21 12:58 · Score: 2
  
  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.
4. Re:They'll remember that by Riceballsan · 2018-09-21 13:40 · Score: 1
  
  yeah I get the scale of them... but there's also gotta be more of a middle ground IMO. especially with the chapter release schedule system. First game I played was the walking dead. At the time no other chapters were released, so after the maybe hour and a half it took to finish the first chapter I decided I'd replay it doing very different choices... quickly learning almost nothing had noteworthy impact. The first "who do I save" choice, got overridden as I auto failed to save the second option and someone else saves the first one". Then later on when taking oposite sides on 2 peoples conflicts, always siding with one... I found no matter what the same guy tries to kill you, and the other saves you. The only difference is adding "even if you are an asshole" while he saves you if you were mean to him.
5. Re:They'll remember that by Tuidjy · 2018-09-21 13:40 · Score: 1
  
  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 dozen years ago. The Witcher 2 developers decided that no one seeing more than 80% of the game's content in one play-through was worth the sense of accomplishment.
  Hell, the first time we finished that game, we killed a major character whom we had already met and whom I liked a lot... without even realizing we were doing it. And that did not happen off screen, either. At the end, we agonized over decisions, and saw our choices changing the political map. Before continuing with the Witcher 3, we had an argument on which character we should continue with, and came close to going back to the second installment, to see whether we could combine two major outcomes. We did not, because we decided that they were mutually exclusive (although later we learned they were not, as someone would get saved by a character whose motivations we had not quite understood)
  Telltale chose to make their games so that choices seldom mattered.
  
  --
  No good deed goes unpunished...
6. Re:They'll remember that by Raenex · 2018-09-21 13:53 · Score: 1
  
  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.
7. Re:They'll remember that by sysrammer · 2018-09-21 13:54 · Score: 1
  
  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.
  
  --
  His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
8. Re: They'll remember that by DrXym · 2018-09-22 01:43 · Score: 1
  
  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. How is it that a company that supposedly specialised in this genre couldn't manage it? Perhaps the reason they are in financial trouble now is players got fed up with the superficiality of these "games".
9. Re: They'll remember that by Raenex · 2018-09-22 03:12 · Score: 1
  
  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.
10. Re: They'll remember that by DrXym · 2018-09-22 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  It still has more meaningful choice than the typical TT game. And it was produced on a shoestring, had episodic content etc.
11. Re:They'll remember that by Cinnamon+Beige · 2018-09-22 05:10 · Score: 1
  
  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, 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.
12. Re: They'll remember that by Raenex · 2018-09-22 05:40 · Score: 1
  
  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?
13. Re: They'll remember that by allcoolnameswheretak · 2018-09-23 21:30 · Score: 1
  
  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.
14. Re: They'll remember that by Raenex · 2018-09-23 22:38 · Score: 1
  
  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.
Sadly this was expected by Luckyo · 2018-09-21 11:17 · Score: 2

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.
1. Re:Sadly this was expected by Jason1729 · 2018-09-21 11:26 · Score: 1
  
  I disagree. You know right from the start that it's only an illusion of choices matter. It's like a slightly more interactive TV watching experience. The games are exactly as repayable as a DVD of a TV season is re-watchable. But you know that when you buy it.
2. Re: Sadly this was expected by Presence+Eternal · 2018-09-21 11:29 · 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.
3. Re:Sadly this was expected by Luckyo · 2018-09-21 11:36 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, you don't. The games were marketed early on specifically on "your choice matters" and "find out what happens if you choose differently".
4. Re: Sadly this was expected by Luckyo · 2018-09-21 11:38 · Score: 1
  
  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".
5. Re:Sadly this was expected by Raenex · 2018-09-21 12:40 · Score: 1
  
  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 like crap on an (admittedly) older laptop. But their other games before that were all right with the settings turned down.
  But I don't regret any of my purchases. Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, those were all great.
6. Re: Sadly this was expected by Presence+Eternal · 2018-09-21 12:51 · Score: 1
  
  If that is the case, I retract my comment.
7. Re:Sadly this was expected by Luckyo · 2018-09-21 13:23 · Score: 1
  
  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.
8. Re:Sadly this was expected by Raenex · 2018-09-21 13:35 · Score: 1
  
  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.
9. Re:Sadly this was expected by Luckyo · 2018-09-21 13:38 · Score: 1
  
  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.
10. Re:Sadly this was expected by loonycyborg · 2018-09-21 19:18 · Score: 1
  
  All issues you pointed out are common among adventure games and story-heavy rpgs so it can't explain studio's closure alone. Adventure games in particular tend to have particularly light gameplay, basically ending up computerized variant of "choose your own adventure" book. Nonetheless, entire genre exists for decades and there always exist people looking for more games like this. In fact Telltale's original rise was caused by this lingering interest after previous mainstream adventure game producers died off during the 3D transition era. You can't expect game's reaction to player's action be both unrestricted and well-written at same time nonetheless exploring such poly-linear narrative can be great fun, even if you understand that it can't ever respond intelligently to everything due to the fact that the writing can't be auto-generated fully and merely consists of prepared discrete alternatives or some templates with some details filled in algorithmically.
11. Re:Sadly this was expected by Luckyo · 2018-09-22 03:03 · Score: 1
  
  Notice how I didn't point out a single issue with gameplay.
  You're projecting.
12. Re:Sadly this was expected by Luckyo · 2018-09-22 03:04 · Score: 1
  
  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.
They had a few good games, sad by Karmashock · 2018-09-21 11:22 · Score: 1

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.

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30 minutes? by commodore64_love · 2018-09-21 11:23 · Score: 2

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.)

--
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
1. Re:30 minutes? by eaglesrule · 2018-09-21 11:57 · Score: 1
  
  In my experience with surprise layoffs, rent-a-cops were hired to be on scene to keep the crowd from getting ugly. Discovering that management had told bold-faced lies up to that point and that no severance was upcoming made people a little cranky. The building was cleared quickly and then the doors were locked.
2. Re:30 minutes? by Dutch+Gun · 2018-09-21 13:23 · Score: 2
  
  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 out, and there wasn't anyone hovering over us. We shook hands with our former bosses and co-workers as we left, and that was that.
  Afterwards, another laid-off co-worker and I joked that "it was the nicest firing ever." There was little danger of us doing anything untoward, because when people are treated with respect and dignity, they're likely to respond in kind, even in a bad situation. And as a more practical matter, we wanted good references from our employer, and hoped to remain working in the game industry. That wouldn't be likely to happen if someone pulled any particularly malicious stunts, as it's a relatively small industry - and was smaller still back then.
  
  --
  Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
3. Re:30 minutes? by Daralantan · 2018-09-22 00:13 · Score: 1
  
  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).
4. Re:30 minutes? by thegarbz · 2018-09-22 01:16 · Score: 1
  
  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.
5. Re:30 minutes? by Cinnamon+Beige · 2018-09-22 05:33 · Score: 1
  
  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.
Fortune teller by manu0601 · 2018-09-21 11:50 · Score: 1

You can play the fortune teller about this company future by looking at what kind of employees they retained: engineers or lawyers+accountants?
1. Re:Fortune teller by Riceballsan · 2018-09-21 12:39 · Score: 2
  
  well neither are relevant to their product. telltale games selling points isn't anything remotely close to technical advancement. They are barely more than chose your own adventure books with a couple of "press this button really rapidly" or "press this button at the right time, reaction tests" thrown in for good measure. If their goal is to keep making products that their fans like, artists and writers are what they need to keep.
I bet the executives made out by jlowery · 2018-09-21 12:03 · Score: 1

How much money was spent on high-end salaries?

--
If you post it, they will read.
Re:Shovelware by Raenex · 2018-09-21 12:22 · Score: 1

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.
shame by eaglesrule · 2018-09-21 12:35 · Score: 1

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 see often in entertainment.
Was wondering when this was going to happen by rsilvergun · 2018-09-21 13:12 · Score: 1

they haven't been able to replace The Walking Dead. This is one of those cases where the management knew bad juju was coming and let it come with little or no effort to address it. It's not even that folks don't want these kinds of games (Life is Strange did very well). They cranked out a few more licensed games but noone can survive on licenses since sooner or later the license holder either lets the property die or takes back the rights.

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This wasn't entirely obvious a few years ago? by LostMyBeaver · 2018-09-21 14:43 · Score: 2

Telltale had great games like Sam and Max which were amazing story lines and designed from the very beginning to be played as games. They were AWESOME!

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! by RubberDogBone · 2018-09-22 04:08 · Score: 1

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 buy the game. And IF your marketing plan involves advertising on Tumblr anyway, you have issues.

--
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