Interesting article about Telltale Games

The Verge: Telltale Games Developer Layoffs Toxic Video Game Industry

I've been a fan of TellTale since the Sam & Max days, and I was initially quite happy that The Walking Dead was such a huge success for them, but became quite bored with that template over time (liked The Wolf Among Us, but never finished Game of Thrones, and I'm a huge GoT fan). It's hard to tell how many of these claims are true, since the article bounces between sources (and the CEO), so it does seem to be telling both sides of the story, or maybe the claims made by one side seem to ring a bit hollow.

I wonder if this company is back on track and will start putting out some more interesting stuff. I've skipped a lot of the stuff they've done over the last few years, and the reviews of Guardians of the Galaxy and later seasons of Walking Dead on this site haven't made me feel like I was missing stuff. We're overdue for some more Sam & Max and Monkey Island, but I know that stuff won't sell as well as hot IPs like Game of Thrones or Batman.

Comments 2

Masters Staff Mar 21, 2018

It's a long, but quick read. And it's not surprising; the findings are definitely in keeping with my own experience with the games. The first Walking Dead game was fantastic. The second was, pretty good. And it was all downhill from there. The Wolf Among Us wasn't bad, but the Michonne and Javi Walking Dead titles were weak, and I couldn't bring myself to get even to the third chapter of Game of Thrones, despite the fact that I enjoy the IP much more than TWD. Just a testament to the wildly varying quality of the writing. The talent behind TWD1 leaving explains a great deal.

Control, ego, money. Same old story. This reminds me of when that kerfuffle kicked up after Modern Warfare 2 had Activision printing money. Then the talent left and made Titanfall... and so the fact that Titanfall 2 is miles better than any COD game to come out in recent history is some degree of justice served.

EmP Staff Mar 27, 2018

I'll always have a soft spot for Telltale. I was there day one for the couple of Bone games they released before they revived Sam & Max, and I ran through every single one of those, too. They've managed to put some good games out since, but it's become more and more obvious that the quality was slipping while the quantity pilled up. I'll never be happy to hear about folk loosing their jobs, but hopefully this restructure will be a reboot of sorts that sees them stop biting off more than they can chew.