Telltale, Acclaimed Maker of Story-Based Video Games, Lays Off Most of Its Staff
By Jason M. Bailey
Telltale Games, an independent developer and publisher that championed narrative in video games through its characters’ conversations and quandaries, laid off most of its staff on Friday, the company said.
Telltale
created point-and-click adventure games based on well-known
entertainment properties like “The Walking Dead,” “Game of Thrones” and
Batman. The games could be bought piecemeal as each $5 episode was
released — usually two to three months apart — or, eventually, all at
once.
The studio had leaned on licensing since it was founded in 2004, with early games based on comic book series like “Sam & Max” and “Bone,” and eventually movies such as “Jurassic Park” and “Back to the Future.”
Its
departure from the industry would be a blow to storytelling in video
games that does more than fill the gaps between gunfights. What appears
to be the sudden cancellation of Telltale projects — including one that
has been partially published — has upset fans.
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“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,” its chief executive, Pete Hawley, said in a statement on Friday.
Telltale did not reply to requests for comment.
The
studio’s breakthrough came in 2012 with its game The Walking Dead,
which had players make difficult moral choices in a zombie-infested
universe.
Players
determined how the protagonist, a former college professor with a
secret, would try to protect a young girl whose parents had vanished in
the outbreak. In addition to choosing from dialogue options, they were
forced to rapidly respond to dire choices: After the professor is bitten
by a zombie, he must decide whether to have his arm sawed off.
Creating
characters who resonated with players — and fleeting moments to alter
their relationships — were among Telltale’s biggest contributions to the
industry, said Evan Skolnick, who teaches video game writing at
Cogswell College in San Jose, Calif.
It
was a “heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching, Sophie’s Choice-every-10-minutes
type of experience,” said Mr. Skolnick, who spent about nine months
writing for Telltale’s later games. “People were emotionally hooked, and
they wanted to see what was going to happen next. They were very much
involved in the story and the characters.”
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Players may have grown fatigued with games by Telltale,
however, as they became familiar with what was once an innovative
formula, Mr. Skolnick said. Although the games suggested that players
could influence the unfolding story, like a “Choose Your Own Adventure”
book in digital form, the various pathways ultimately converged.
The success of The Walking Dead, which was named game of the year by publications like USA Today and Wired,
led Telltale to nearly double the size of its offices and expand to 400
employees. It began churning out episodic content based on intellectual
properties like “Guardians of the Galaxy” and Minecraft.
But after rapid growth came a rocky collapse. The studio laid off 90 employees in November, and harsh working conditions at the company were detailed in a March article by The Verge. In June, Telltale’s former chief executive, Kevin Bruner, sued the company, which he had helped found.
“We
did have demanding projects and demanding deadlines, and it is kind of
an industry norm,” said Mary Kenney, a writer for Telltale who was laid
off on Friday.
Telltale said it
retained 25 employees “to fulfill the company’s obligations to its board
and partners.” The studio had been working on an interactive series for
Netflix involving Minecraft. A game based on the Netflix show “Stranger
Things” was canceled, according to news media reports.
Even so, the studio’s influence on video game narratives will continue.
An
anticipated sequel to Life Is Strange, an episodic game by Dontnod
Entertainment that prioritizes conversations, is set to be released this
week. And in Firewatch, the first game by Campo Santo, a studio founded
by former Telltale writers, the two main characters build a powerful relationship while communicating with walkie-talkies.
Despite
the layoffs at Telltale, the second episode of The Walking Dead’s
fourth and final season is being released on Tuesday. Ms. Kenney, the
lead writer of that episode, said all the writers and designers on the
project were laid off, but the company said on Monday that it was “actively working towards a solution” to publish the final two episodes.
“It’s
still shocking and it’s heartbreaking” to abandon the game after
working on it for a year, Ms. Kenney said. She added, “Not to be able to
celebrate that final launch party is pretty gutting.”
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