-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Telltale Games shutting down after Minecraft Story Mode [Update: TWD S4, ST, TWAU 2 cancelled]
- Thread starter CGiRanger
- Start date
Wait really? I would've assumed they were making a good amount of money with all of those projects they had.
I think it'd be possible to rehire the devs and buy what IP rights they'd need to in order to finish Walking Dead and then do their own thing. That's IF a big company wants to do it, and do it quickly.
The management of this company was atrocious to say the least.
Still hiring people on the last days just to pretend everything was okay...
People are not toys. That is truly the worst.
Still hiring people on the last days just to pretend everything was okay...
People are not toys. That is truly the worst.
Devs should really start considering unionizing, because this shit is criminal (or it should be)
This mess reminded me of this post on the thread about the leak of The Wolf Among Us 2 from months ago
T_T
T_T
What, Saved them how? If the company becomes insolvent the employees go byebye, union or no union
I think it'd make more sense to acquire some of the creative talent and either absorb them into existing studios or start up a new smaller studio.
As for WD, I think the chance to finish that might have gone down with the ship. It seems similar to the Hitman situation, but in that case the studio wasn't shut down. I have to think the rights to finish WD are going to be tied up in whatever bankruptcy proceedings are to follow for Telltale. I don't know if WD S4 is worth the hassle.
Telltale wouldn't be worth buying since they don't really own any IP.
Companies like Ubisoft, Sony, Bethesda ect would be better off just hiring the talent from the layoffs and adding them to established teams.
Some more Tweets from Emily Buck with her telling folks to "fight for unionization and workers rights" and for people to remember that the individual developers working on the final season for The Walking Dead WANTED to finish Clem's story:
And they were ditching the engine anyway. If anything happens, someone will attempt to pick up the talent and give them a new studio (which would be great, and hopefully happens). Either way their current series are all dead.
Upper managaement was completely aware of this and knew it. It wasn't a fuck up or bad advice, it was a deliberate decision. They knew exactly how long they had until they ran out of cash.
They didn't put in a hiring freeze because that would've signaled to the employees that the end was coming.
That's what makes it so fucked up.
I am so upset right now. I was actually really excited for finally seeing how clems story ended... I hope the writer or someone releases their plan for her ending. I gotta know... :(
I get San Francisco is a nice town and the Bay area is filled with interesting things but man the high living costs combined with gentrification has made it into a town were you need a huge wage just to even scrape by.
There's no point..as they do not own any of the IPs. It would be the worst buy imaginable for a company...all they would be buying is the game engine(s)
They wouldn't have to pay for it though, which would have been a big incentive.
Like stuff like this happens in almost every single industry.
Like I posted earlier this shit would be illegal here in Norway and you guys need unions more than ever.
A guy from TT already spoiled how it was supposed to end in lieu of it happening
He said this is not how Clem was supposed to die
Of course it wouldn't have stopped this from happening; my point is it would have at least given the employees some ground under their feet. That's super important for workers in any industry to have, especially in a country where you lose your healthcare if you lose your job.
Oh, what the fuck? The more I think about it the more this hurts; between TWAU, the rest of TWD (which is bad in itself because I've been playing that series since day one,) Batman, & Stranger Things that's a fuckton of future optimism down the shitter. And that's from a player's side, can't rightly imagine making these games and having all these interesting projects just taken straight out of your hands.
Having a hard time finding info in on how this would be illegal in Norway. Do you mind explaining?
For people who are worried about the Telltale games disappearing when they become delisted, I've been looking into what exists on physical discs and what doesn't. This doesn't account for their more older games, though.
The ones you should be worrying most about are: Game Of Thrones, because the only physical release it got is a season pass disc which only contains the first episode and the rest must be downloaded. Same with the Batman games and Guardians Of The Galaxy. Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two, which interestingly is supposed to be released on the Switch in November which may not happen now. And if you care about the incomplete season 4 of The Walking Dead, this is probably your only chance to get it.
The Walking Dead Seasons 1-3, plus any extra content are all on disc for The Walking Dead Collection release. All eight episodes of Minecraft: Story Mode Season One can be found on disc with the Complete Adventure release. There is a Switch version of this, but I'm not sure if it requires an extra download. It appears that all of the episodes are on disc for the Wolf Among Us on the PS4 and Xbox One, but I'm not sure about the PS3 and Xbox 360 release. It also sounds like it runs terribly on disc for the last generation so it should probably be avoided. Tales From The Boarderlands also appears to have all episodes on disc for at least the current generation.
I may be wrong on some of these, and I'm not sure if I missed anything, but this is what I've noticed so far.
The ones you should be worrying most about are: Game Of Thrones, because the only physical release it got is a season pass disc which only contains the first episode and the rest must be downloaded. Same with the Batman games and Guardians Of The Galaxy. Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two, which interestingly is supposed to be released on the Switch in November which may not happen now. And if you care about the incomplete season 4 of The Walking Dead, this is probably your only chance to get it.
The Walking Dead Seasons 1-3, plus any extra content are all on disc for The Walking Dead Collection release. All eight episodes of Minecraft: Story Mode Season One can be found on disc with the Complete Adventure release. There is a Switch version of this, but I'm not sure if it requires an extra download. It appears that all of the episodes are on disc for the Wolf Among Us on the PS4 and Xbox One, but I'm not sure about the PS3 and Xbox 360 release. It also sounds like it runs terribly on disc for the last generation so it should probably be avoided. Tales From The Boarderlands also appears to have all episodes on disc for at least the current generation.
I may be wrong on some of these, and I'm not sure if I missed anything, but this is what I've noticed so far.
They were in San Rafael, which is a bit cheaper than SF.
Also, you can't just move a creative company into the middle of nowhere or to an undesirable city. You'll have a hard time getting enough talented people wanting to live in a boring city. You just need to manage your company better.
I'm not sure a union would've helped in this situation. If there's no cash to pay severance, I don't see what could be done.
Unfortunately the benefits offered by a union disappear when the company falls apart.
I guess if it was considered criminal behavior that would be one way to prevent it.
If management comes out with big payouts I'll be even more pissed.
Dude look around, look at the Midwest, look at Eastern ports... It ain't just the video game companies. Greed will be the ruination of America if we keep going like this and its the plebs, developers and so on that feel it first. As we always do.
Sam & Max 1-3 have had disc releases at certain points – plus they're available DRM-free on GOG, so they'll be preserved easily.
Anything for better worker rights in this terrible industry
The evils of our system are really fucked, these people are essentially from studio devs to almost poverty level in less than a day and have no saftey net whatsoever
Where's the money going to come from? If employees don't even get severance, customers aren't getting a refund from telltale.
Only way a refund will be offered is if the storefront pays the refund itself.
For Game Of Thrones PS4, only the last episode is download. The rest is on the disc.
I'm sure once the official cancellation announcement is made, info around refunds will also become available. It's a shitty situation for ppl who paid for it and I hope there is a favorable outcome to the custs even if it means Valve, Sony and MS footing the bill.
If Telltale lied about their financials and kept employees in the dark that could be a violation of our labor laws, I also wanna point out those employees would have a safety net until they got another job here which they don't have in America.
There's a middle ground between dream location and undesirable area in the middle of nowhere. People act like it's San Fran or bust. There are plenty of nice cities out there with things to do. Besides given the hours the typical game dev works in a week, they aren't spending much time enjoying the city that they love so much.
Seriously. I can't imagine moving to a new city for a job, signing a lease, then before I even get my first paycheck the place closes. Just, damn. Fuck whoever decided to keep hiring as normal.
This is straight up incompetence. I hope all those devs find jobs soon. They should never have been put into such a position in the first place.
Extremely saddened for those affected. Having been in the game industry for 17 years now, I know how this can sting.
The good news is, Tripwire Interactive is currently recruiting for many positions. If there are any TellTale employees reading this, send me a PM after checking out our recruitment video and positions page.
Jobs page: http://www.tripwireinteractive.com/jobs.aspx
Recruitment video
The good news is, Tripwire Interactive is currently recruiting for many positions. If there are any TellTale employees reading this, send me a PM after checking out our recruitment video and positions page.
Jobs page: http://www.tripwireinteractive.com/jobs.aspx
Recruitment video
