Telltale games shuts down

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scotland
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Telltale games shuts down

Postby scotland » September 25th, 2018, 9:24 am

https://kotaku.com/telltale-employees-left-stunned-by-company-closure-no-1829272139

Telltale Games, makers of a Walking Dead game, hurriedly let go many of its remaining employees as it shuts down.

Ozzybear
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby Ozzybear » September 25th, 2018, 11:35 am

I hope at least the rest of the latest walking dead series is released. It really sucks to hear this as I really loved their games . To me I would play them as a nice change of pace from the normal hack n slash craziness that I usually play, so always thought it was a cool genre with all the different takes on characters and stories , definetly sucks to hear this !

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scotland
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby scotland » September 25th, 2018, 12:30 pm

My understanding is the four chapter final season is only partly done. Episode 2 is ready for release, but there is debate on whether fans should buy it as the creative team can no longer benefit at all. There may be some hope that the game is finished by someone else, but seems rather unlikely.

Maybe we'll see a Clementine in some live action Walking Dead show someday.

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Stalvern
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby Stalvern » September 25th, 2018, 9:34 pm

What a horrible way to treat those employees. There is no excuse.

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txsizzler
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby txsizzler » September 28th, 2018, 9:36 am

It appears Telltale Games has a class action lawsuit on them now, for the way they let their workers go, and not following the federally-mandated WARN Act, which requires employers to give 60 day notice on layoffs, or other preemptive mass terminations.

If there lawsuit succeeds, Telltale will be required to pay 60 days worth of employee paychecks, and all benefits.

GameOfThrones
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby GameOfThrones » September 29th, 2018, 8:10 pm

Stalvern wrote:What a horrible way to treat those employees. There is no excuse.

I completely agree.

Sonicx9
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby Sonicx9 » September 30th, 2018, 12:56 am

Rather late to the party, but my two cents are this. I think the things that led to Telltales downfall is as following.

Doing way too many games at one time with not enough spread that not only burned out gamers/consumers and fans. But it also spread the company way to fin.

Second they stuck with an old/outdated game engine from the mid 2000s used during the mid to late 2010 decade that caused lots of development problems and bugs/glitches. They where going to move to Unity engine after The Walking Dead: The Final Season was finished, but it was too little, too late.

Third, they stuck around with last gen (PS3/Xbox 360) and Mobile (iOS/Android) for far two long in the 8th gen, as they had their stuff ported to those formats all the way up until 2018 when the The Walking Dead: The Final Season being their first and sadly only game that went full on next gen and was too little too late. And not only did the old/outdated/less powerful 7th gen consoles and Mobile devices held back their games graphics/gameplay/other things, etc. But caused lots of problems like more bugs and glitches and limited their next gen ambitions until the The Walking Dead: The Final Season came in as a too little too late game. In fact most companies gave up on last gen/handheld/mobile version of 8th gen in mind games around late 2016 early 2017 range around the time the Nintendo Switch came in outside of a few Japanese/Indie stick around and certain annual sports/music games here and their. But Telltale was too stubborn to let go until the worst time to do so.

Fourth the management, which I won't get into too much as it has been beaten to death with nothing else to add.

But it a sad tale as just when they where going the right direction it was all too little, too late as their potential never got fully reached because of what happen. Also what sad about this is they promised many Nintendo Switch support ports such as Batman: The Enemy Within, Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two, The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, and Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series where all promised and are in limbo until someone picks up the game rights which is TBD as everything regarding Telltale is up in the air right now.

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scotland
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby scotland » October 2nd, 2018, 7:39 am

The point is not to nitpick the business decisions of Telltale games, like what game engine they used, but to take issue with how management had workers under crunch time pressure and then let them go without severance or warning and a half hour to pack up and leave.

Its a bit like Jaws, where the management of Amity Island wants to fill up the beaches, and not tell anyone there is very likely a huge shark in the water. To be fair, its lose-lose for management. If they feel the shop is almost certain to close, may as well keep going and finish a game up. Capital might come in, and if it doesn't, the newly finished game is an asset. Its the staff that suffers, like the beachgoers in Jaws.

Here is an article in Wired https://www.wired.com/story/telltale-games-studio-closures/ that points out that a major hurdle to changing the video game industry culture is *us* - the gamers with statements like this one that focuses on the games, not the people behind the games

Sonicx9 wrote: Also what sad about this is they promised many Nintendo Switch support ports such as Batman: The Enemy Within, Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two, The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, and Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series where all promised and are in limbo until someone picks up the game rights which is TBD as everything regarding Telltale is up in the air right now.


Its we the gamers shouting for our games, rather than consideration of the people who made them. I'm guilty of this too - I"ve spent many hours with characters like Clementine of the Walking Dead, and would like to know how her story ends.

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scotland
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby scotland » October 2nd, 2018, 1:28 pm

Sonicx9 wrote:Rather late to the party, but my two cents are this.


Thank you for writing out your opinion here, instead of posting links to videos you agree with. That's appreciated.

Sonicx9
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Re: Telltale games shuts down

Postby Sonicx9 » October 4th, 2018, 12:36 am

scotland wrote:
Sonicx9 wrote:Rather late to the party, but my two cents are this.


Thank you for writing out your opinion here, instead of posting links to videos you agree with. That's appreciated.


Thanks I am glad it turned out well, on my other post involving Mega Man 11 vs Mighty No. 9 I will fix that latter as I was busy during that time, (going to Dinseyland/Califrornia Adventrure theme park as I live in Southern California area). An update regarding Telltale games future games/ports their is some good news as the Nintendo Switch port of Batman: The Enemy Within is now available to buy on the eShop: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/1 ... itch_eshop so this does give me hopes that the other future Nintendo Switch Telltale Games ports can still be released such as Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two, The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, and Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series can all be released as promised and they can technically be released as the skeleton crew at Telltale Games is currently in the process of delivering the Netflix version of Minecraft Story Mode and maybe some of the Nintendo Switch ports of their promised games. (Although the Switch physical versions not yet released will need a new publisher/distributor because of Telltale games recent situation.)


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