After launching the final season of the Walking Dead in August, developer Telltale Games has been struck with massive layoffs and closure.
Telltale’s Statement
“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.”
Additionally, Telltale Games’ CEO Pete Hawley issued a 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 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 storytelling across the games industry.
Telltale will issue further comments regarding its product portfolio in the coming weeks.”
After several rumors and anonymous sources, it’s been uncovered that the remaining employees are working on Minecraft Story Mode for Netflix. That means the Walking Dead staff were laid off and the second episode coming out next week will be the final one. Additionally, The Wolf Among Us season 2 and the Stranger Things game have been canceled.
This isn’t the first time Telltale has dealt with layoffs. In 2017, the developer laid off 90 employees, less than 25 percent of the company. This move was done as a way of restructuring the company which included updating their game engine. The Stranger Things game would’ve been the first game to be developed with the updated engine. The second and final episode of The Walking Dead comes out next Tuesday.
On behalf of everyone at VGR, we wish nothing but the best for everyone affected by the layoffs.