It’s the final season for Telltale Games, a developer that produced episodic video games, as it prepares to shut down.
Telltale gained attention for its games The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Batman: The Enemy Within, and Game of Thrones. On Friday, the studio announced the bulk of its staff were laid off with just 25 staying on to finish its obligations to the company’s board and partners.
— Telltale (@telltalegames) September 21, 2018
It’s unclear how the rest of the season and the rest of Telltale’s lineup will proceed following the massive layoffs. The studio was in the midst of new game releases. The first episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season was released last month.
The news also comes after Telltale’s internal battle with toxic management and culture of overworking, documented by The Verge. Last year, Telltale laid off 90 employees, about a quarter of its total staff at the time.
Co-founder and former CEO Kevin Bruner discussed the layoffs and imminent closure in a blog post Friday writing, “Today, I’m mostly saddened for the people who are losing their jobs at a studio they love. And I’m also saddened at the loss of a studio that green-lit crazy ideas that no one else would consider. I’m comforted a bit knowing there are now so many new talented people and studios creating games in the evolving narrative genre.”
