More Telltale Games Employees Laid off As Skeleton Crew Dwindles

Martha Temmuz 13, 2021

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The staff at Telltale Games continues to dwindle: an employee there recently tweeted that the company just laid off more of its workforce, leaving a small skeleton crew behind to handle the developer's unfinished titles. This suggests that those unfinished game may, in fact, remain unfinished.

Telltale Games was founded in 2004 by former developers for LucasArts. The company's massive success with its adventure titles, including the highly popular The Walking Dead series, changed the way players interacted with video games. With narrative-driven gameplay and stories that let players choose their own adventures, it seemed that Telltale would continue its success for years to come. It was creating games from some of the largest franchises, including Batman, Game of Thrones and Stranger Things. However, reports surfaced this year that the company was shutting down. It recently laid off 225 of its employees, leaving only about 25 people left to complete the developer's unfinished games.

Now, though, that small team is even smaller. According to a tweet from narrative designer Rachel Noel, Telltale has laid off even more of its employees, leaving only a handful to complete the studio's work.

Noel later clarified that there were still people left at Telltale, but not many. She did reiterate, though, that her work at the company was done.

There is no word yet on how this will affect Telltale's unfinished projects. Its Stranger Things game is dead in the water, but what will happen with the final season of The Walking Dead? Players have already purchased full season passes for a game that only has one episode currently available, and it now seems as if Telltale no longer has the staff to complete it. Even more upsetting is that the season pass is no longer available for purchase. There is no word what might happen to those who already purchased the pass, but it could prove even more troublesome if Telltale fails to deliver the full product.

After Telltale recently stated it wanted to work with outside developers to finish the series, it came under fire by a pro-union group that believes the company should pay its laid-off workers severance before paying third-party developers for their work. That is also one of the reasons why Telltale is facing a class action lawsuit from its former employees for violating labor laws. Whatever happens, Telltale is in a difficult position, and it looks like the developer is going out with not so much as a bang, but a whimper. And that's a shame, considering all the wonderful games Telltale has given to the industry.