Telltale Games Lays Off Staff, Retain Small Number

Just months after it was revealed that Telltale Games would be partnering with Netflix to create new games, the popular studio best known for the Walking Dead games has laid off almost their entire staff. A source revealed to GameDaily that a small team of 25 staff would be retained, whilst the remaining staff were let go with no mention of severance.

Telltale Games had previously suffered a loss of staff late last year, when approximately 90 staff were let go in November, as The Walking Dead: The Final Season was not expected to reach similar revenue to previous games in the series.

The announced partnership with Netflix was expected to revitalize the company, with the developer also moving away from its aging Telltale Tool engine to work with Unity on an upcoming Stranger Things title. Also, on the slate for the new engine was a sequel to The Wolf Among Us, which was bumped back to 2019 in order to give the developer more time to work with the new engine.

Despite the struggles, Telltale’s board of directors had full confidence in the developer and new CEO Pete Hawley, who was brought on to replace the ousted Kevin Bruner. In a quote to Variety, Peter Levin, board member and Lionsgate president of interactive ventures, games and digital strategy, stated “Pete Hawley has quickly restored Telltale Games to its former position of innovation and leadership in choose-your-own-narrative interactive storytelling… Breaking ground and telling fantastic stories is what Telltale Games has been known for… they are very much back on track in both arenas.”

The second episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season is due for release on September 25^th, with the third and fourth episodes set for November and December launches respectively. At this stage, it seems that other projects, including Stranger Things and The Wolf Among Us 2 will be cancelled.