Telltale Games Closing Down - Rumors at the moment

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http://gamasutra.com/view/news/3270...ead_developer_Telltale_Games_closing_down.php

Article said:
Telltale Games, the studio behind games like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us appears to be closing its doors, according to social media posts from multiple developers previously employed that the company.

Gamasutra has reached out to Telltale Games for more details on the situation, but posts from developers on Twitter and Facebook, both private and public, seem to indicate that the studio is shutting is shutting down or experiencing large-scale layoffs. This story will be updated following the studio's reply.

If you or someone you know has been affected by this closure, you can email Gamasutra to share your story confidentially.
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I guess doing games like "Minecraft Story Mode" might not have been a sound financial decision.
 
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"Email Gamasutra to share your story confidentially"? The fuck? Like you guys aren't gonna make it public! They might have just jumped the gun too. Telltale is currently releasing Walking Dead The Last Season, and has recently confirmed a new season of The Wolf Among Us. They might be downsizing, but I doubt they'll close. They're not doing that poorly from what I can gather.

P.S Wasn't that site involved in the Gamergate thing on Zoe Quinn's side of the story? Maybe I'm wrong to think that dynamites their journo cred, but it's what I think.

EDIT: Yeah, perpetual crunch times and horrible employee management aside, financial estimate sites put their annual income at 450 million dollars. That's a lotta simoleons to be a failing business if right. Info might be shoddy of course. They also have at least 5 games with a million sales on Steam. This is probably just a legal maneuver to somehow skirt having to pay severance and having to deal with the anger of their many, many mistreated employees.
 
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Don't be sad that they're gone, be happy that they were there

Monkey island, Homestar Runner, Tales from the Borderlands, at least 2 seasons of the walking dead were all great and no amount of closing studios will take that greatness away
 
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The problem with adventure games and rhe reason they died out in the 90s is that there's nowhere to go with point and click/inventory games. The inventory and item puzzles got subsumed into survival horror. Other game types got more involved storylines and puzzle solving. And Telltale games got less interactive as time went on until it was like polygonal Phantasmagoria.

It's a really niche audience compared to shooters or even RTS. No amount of licenses can cover up the fact there's not much of an audience there anymore, no matter how vocal its members are.
 
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SauceRyuKen said:
They might be downsizing, but I doubt they'll close. They're not doing that poorly from what I can gather.
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No idea where you're gathering your information from. Telltale's deep financial and management troubles have become pretty infamous. The 25-person skeleton team is to finish the last episode of The Walking Dead, and then they'll close.
 
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Adolf Von Merkel said:
The wolf among us is one of their most aclaimed interactive games and one of their top seller.They still were developing their S2 but they released Minecraft S2 like one year later.
That tells how bad are at bussiness.
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Of all their games only The Walking Dead: Season 1 and Minecraft: Story Mode turned a profit, which makes it brutally clear that their media profile has always vastly exceeded their actual popularity.

This also makes it amusing that they only collapsed after the gaming media turned on them last year, because they've been dependent on investor money since they were founded.
 
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RJ MacReady said:
Of all their games only The Walking Dead: Season 1 and Minecraft: Story Mode turned a profit, which makes it brutally clear that their media profile has always vastly exceeded their actual popularity.

This also makes it amusing that they only collapsed after the gaming media turned on them last year, because they've been dependent on investor money since they were founded.
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I remember that Monkey Island and The wolf among us were a profit too. Maybe I misremember it.

neural said:
They had renowned cunt Leigh Alexander on their books I believe.

Seems there was drama with the former CEO, here's his comment:
https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/21/ousted-telltale-ceo-kevin-bruner-comments-on-studios-fate/
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He had problem with Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin(the writers TWD S1) which end with the duo leaving Telltale and founding camposanto(the studio who made firewatch).
Seems like a cunt, but is not like these two were better (one of them got salty because pewdewpie say nigger in a video).
 
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RJ MacReady said:
No idea where you're gathering your information from. Telltale's deep financial and management troubles have become pretty infamous. The 25-person skeleton team is to finish the last episode of The Walking Dead, and then they'll close.
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It was from what I can gather in the "An educated guess" sense. I guess English not being a first language really shows at times, heh.

I suppose if you really think about it, it would make sense. You can just watch some streamer or youtuber play it and you won't miss a thing. Which would make for poor sales. It's probably optimistic, but I wouldn't be that surprised if they kept going instead of shutting down, or at least open up a spiritual successor studio. The laid off employees do state that the company has told them it's shutting down, and they're not receiving severance either. Seems likely the Telltale Games name might just die.

EDIT: Edited the other post to not flood the thread, but TL;DR, Telltale might not be raking it in but it would be weird for them to not be turning a profit at all with their sales. Financial estimate site gives 450 million bucks as annual income. Might be wrong of course, but that's not a financially failing company. Employee management, certainly though, as you pointed out.
 
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