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Telltale Games reportedly lays off most employees, cancels multiple games

Gabe Gurwin
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Six Years of Telltale's The Walking Dead

Telltale Games, the studio responsible for games like The Walking Dead, Tales from the Borderlands, and The Wolf Among Us, has reportedly been hit with huge layoffs that have resulted in the majority of its projects being canceled.

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According to Gamasutra — which had previously reported that the studio would be shuttered completely — only 25 employees at Telltale Games will remain at the company in order to finish work on The Walking Dead: The Final Season. USGamer also reported that both the planned Stranger Things game and The Wolf Among Us: Season 2 have been canceled as a result of the layoffs.

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Telltale had reportedly been struggling with management issues and technical concerns related to its proprietary game engine, though it appeared the company was ready to move away from the technology in favor of the popular Unity engine.

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According to Variety, Telltale was seeing decreasing returns on its episodic series as of late, with games like Guardians of the Galaxy and Batman: The Enemy Within performing particularly poorly. Telltale laid off about a quarter of its workforce last November — amounting to 90 employees — and it seems very unlikely that the 25-person skeleton crew will be able to continue releasing new games after The Walking Dead concludes.

It’s a far cry from where Telltale was just a few years ago. The success of the original The Walking Dead game paved the way for a variety of new partnerships. In addition to The Wolf Among Us and Tales from the Borderlands, the studio developed games based on HBO’s Game of Thrones and Minecraft.

Other game developers have already begun reaching out in order to help those who lost their jobs get back on their feet. Star Wars: Battlefront II writer Mitch Dyer shared a Google document with current job openings, many of which are in California where Telltale is based.

Telltale Games is the second major studio hit by layoffs this week. Dead Rising developer Capcom Vancouver announced it was shutting its doors just a few days ago, despite the success of parent company Capcom’s recent releases.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season currently has one released episode. The second is scheduled to launch September 25, with the final episode due in December.

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Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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