![]() In the ’80s and ’90s, adventure games were in their prime. We spoke to several ex-Telltale employees and executives to better understand what led to the developer’s abrupt closure, how the studio bred a toxic work culture, and how Telltale made such a huge impact on the industry with its revival of a genre from a bygone era. But after oversaturating its market, introducing vigorously quick production cycles, and growing its studio too quickly, it soon became a beast that could no longer be fed. Only a few years prior, Telltale was at the top of its game, evolving into an adventure-games juggernaut, bringing the genre back to the mainstream, and dispelling the notion that “adventure games are dead.” The company’s work inspired hundreds of other developers to create story-driven games in recent years like Firewatch and Life is Strange. News of the studio closure rattled the games industry with shock and bafflement, as if this were a death-defying stunt gone terribly wrong. One of Telltale’s initial goals was to continue Sam & Max adventure games in an episodic formatĪfter this fateful meeting, all of Telltale’s upcoming big releases were dead. Ironically, one former employee describes the dramatic scene as though it came “right out of The Walking Dead” – a game that brought the studio worldwide recognition, but also steered the company toward an untimely demise as it tried to reach those same heights again. People gasped, coworkers hugged, and some uncontrollably sobbed. They left without severance, with only nine more days of health insurance, and worst of all, no job. Without any advance warning, everyone else had merely 30 minutes to exit the building before even wrapping their heads around the shutdown. Only a small group of 25 would temporarily remain to finish Minecraft: Story Mode’s transition to Netflix. He informed the group that Telltale Games was laying off 90 percent of its staff as the company headed toward a majority studio closure. This made Hawley’s next words all the more shocking. If anything, things looked promising with Telltale’s next big, high-profile projects on the horizon, including the finale to The Walking Dead, a Stranger Things game born out of a Netflix partnership, and the anticipated return of The Wolf Among Us. Some were concerned it was a small batch of layoffs, while others were convinced it was good news after hearing talk of new investors. “Were you invited?” coworkers asked one another, each wondering about the nature of the meeting. The entire studio had received the meeting invitation just an hour and a half beforehand, and confusion spread quick. #Game of thrones a telltale games series physical copy pc crackedAs he waited for the hundreds of employees to trickle into the room, Telltale CEO Pete Hawley cracked some jokes, easing the tension for a moment before discussing the matter at hand. ![]()
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