Telltale Games, we knew you for too short a time.
Last year fans were worried when Telltale Games showed signs of financial trouble, dropping about a quarter of its workforce. Now, a great band of storytellers has disbanded except the few core employees cleaning up the aftermath. A company whose website mentions “53 dogs visit our office each month” and greeted employees with “you have an opportunity to make a great impact” just announced the end today.
The Twitter release is as follows:
— Telltale Games (@telltalegames) September 21, 2018
How does this impact us as gamers?
The first thing, this means that several quality stories are coming to an end. Several projects were announced that just vanished into vaporware. Secondly, this has also enraged some gamers who bought multi-season games just to find out it won’t come true. Telltale had a habit of selling a game but dissecting it into multiple episodes. Several fans have already demanded refunds from the collapsing company. Third, it means a loss of creative talent in the video game market. Hopefully the former employees can make good happen elsewhere, but I feel that creativity and innovation didn’t save this small but influential company from its demise.
Personally, I’m very sad to see Telltale go. Their games were among the top of my list to stream. In fact, my channel did most of its launch phase with “Wolf Among Us” and “Tales of the Borderlands”.
I am still considering some of their games for future channel streams. My sons have enjoyed playing Telltale’s Minecraft series.
It’s sad, since I feel Telltale was one of those small, creative players offering quality games amidst bigger companies that remix the same concepts repetitively. I also get concerned for similar companies that have followed the multi-season method, notably Dontnod of the “Life is Strange” games. It makes me downright leery of entities like Cloud Imperium and “Star Citizen,” which have pulled hundreds out of my own wallet and seem to be in perpetual development with no release in sight.
Sorry to see you go, Telltale Games. Video game creativity and narrative has lost a voice today.