Telltale Games Confirms “Majority Studio Closure” (Updated)

Update, 5:38 p.m. ET: Telltale Games have confirmed today’s layoffs, explaining that the company “made the difficult decision to begin a majority studio closure following a year marked by insurmountable challenges. A majority of the company’s employees were dismissed earlier this morning, with a small group of 25 employees staying on to fulfill the company’s obligations to its board and partners.”

Telltale CEO Pete Hawley said in a statement:

It’s been an incredibly difficult year for Telltale as we worked to set the company on a new course. Unfortunately, we ran out of time trying to get there. We released some of our best content this year and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but ultimately, that did not translate to sales. With a heavy heart, we watch our friends leave today to spread our brand of storytelling across the games industry.

The company says we can expect “further comments regarding its product portfolio” in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.

Original Story: Telltale Games, best known for developing The Walking Dead, Tales of the Borderlands and The Wolf Among Us, has been hit with sudden massive layoffs. Once at the top of the industry, the studio will now resize to a team of just 25 people, per The Verge.

It seems like the Telltale team will stick around to finish The Walking Dead: The Final Season, which has its second episode releasing next week, but the studio’s plans for The Wolf Among Us 2 and Stranger Things have reportedly been canceled. An anonymous source told USgamer that the company has filed for bankruptcy.

An initial report at Gamasutra and tweets from numerous developers who have previously worked at the studio initially said that Telltale Games was shutting down. The report quickly spread on social media to the point that the views on the Gamasutra article crashed the site’s servers. While the studio is not shutting down just yet, it seems like Telltale is nearing its last run. The studio has been known to have struggled with mismanagement in the past, leading to previous layoffs—but not quite on this scale.

Paste has reached out to Telltale Games for additional information, and we will update you as the story develops.