Board 8 > Telltale Games is shutting down

(+) Yeah! (+)

Nooooo this sucks!

Was hoping for more Wolf and Borderlands (TWD S1 and TFTB were top tier)
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I wonder about two things in particular -

1.The Walking Dead for Switch - S1 came out on Switch a month ago. How did it sell? considering that the Switch is super popular now and every game is selling very well, did it help them even a little?
What about the promised S2 and S3 Switch releases that were supposed to be out this year too?

2.Do you think not having piracy protection at all might be a reason why their games sold poorly?
They are some of the easiest games to pirate and barely any reason to buy (besides supporting and well, you know, doing things legally)
No worthwhile achievements, no online, barely any replayability, no DRM to the point if you pirate the first episode you can download the latter episodes with the same crack
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BlackMageJawa posted...

I'm... kinda concerned about what happens to all the games in my Telltale account. I was trying to support a company I love by buying direct, but if their downloads go down, I'm pretty much screwed unless they issue a bunch of Steam/GOG keys.

How does their system work? Is it not possible to download what you can now to prepare for the worst?
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i like Telltale

i think they have a shitty business model and their decline in quality is sad

i still have a soft spot for them though
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

The vitriol towards them is strange.

I adored the wolf among us and have suggested it to a number of friends.

The nature of the management, as asserted by an article from a few months ago that i don't have at my fingertips, removed a decent chunk of my goodwill towards the management of the company.

In particular, I recall reading that new ideas were often shot down, and a formulaic approach to game creation often won out. With that in mind, it's no wonder that their games became repetitive and sales subsequently dropped.
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Telltale games were slowly becoming the Funko Pop of video games
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maybe one of these days I'll try playing Walking Dead again
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

BlackMageJawa posted...

I'm... kinda concerned about what happens to all the games in my Telltale account. I was trying to support a company I love by buying direct, but if their downloads go down, I'm pretty much screwed unless they issue a bunch of Steam/GOG keys.

How does their system work? Is it not possible to download what you can now to prepare for the worst?

The installer is usually just Episode 1, and then you download the other episodes from within the program. Which probably makes it difficult to archive a whole series, since by the time the data's all there, it's installed and possibly not movable. You also have to be logged in to a TTG account and authenticate online at least once.

It might be doable, but.. I'd feel much happier if they were in a GOG account right now.
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Doesn't surprise me, I remember how much popularity they had but it was kinda an exponential level of growth. I don't think they got a lot of haters, but just fans moved on to other things and they could sustain the model they had due to the insane rush of popularity.

Exponential growth like they saw usually follows with bad times. Its kinda the consequence of the social media hype train
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Nanis23 posted...

What about the promised S2 and S3 Switch releases that were supposed to be out this year too?

Considering they're due out in the next three months, the ports are probably almost complete. I can't believe they'd abandon those now.

Same with Batman Season 2, but that just got confirmed for Switch with an October 2nd release date not even a week ago. That's gotta be 100% done. There's no way they yank that now.
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The Mana Sword posted...

yeah man good riddance to every who lost their job am I right

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greengravy294 posted...

The Mana Sword posted...

yeah man good riddance to every who lost their job am I right

Weakupedia posted...

The Mana Sword posted...

yeah man good riddance to every who lost their job am I right

I was expecting this post. If a company can't sustain its shitty business model, it's not going to and should not survive.

Do not equate my dislike for Telltale Games with a disdain for hardworking employees.

Edit: equivocate is not the right word

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https://twitter.com/LawofTD/status/1043278296396357633?s=19

TWD final season is also canceled.

jesus
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It still doesn't make you a good person to say good riddance to them lol
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At least their legendary titles with stay with us forever, like Sonic 3D blast

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

It still doesn't make you a good person to say good riddance to them lol

i guess I'm ok with you thinking that.
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Weakupedia posted...

https://twitter.com/LawofTD/status/1043278296396357633?s=19

TWD final season is also canceled.

LeonhartFour posted...

maybe one of these days I'll try playing Walking Dead again

nevermind then
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Weakupedia posted...

TWD final season is also canceled.

Huh, I wonder what this means for the people who have bought it
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Weakupedia posted...

https://twitter.com/LawofTD/status/1043278296396357633?s=19

TWD final season is also canceled.

jesus

WHAT?! No!
This one hurt

The final season had potential, the first episode showed promise and I wanted to know how a fucking TWD story ends for once (and Clemantine's fate)
This is terrible news
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Apparently they ONLY turned a profit on:

Minecraft Story Mode
TWD S1
7 Days to Die

That's fucking INSANE that they'd do all those licensed projects when they weren't turning a profit on them.
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As always, my heart goes out to those in the game industry who lost their jobs today, as well as their families, friends, and fans.
I had heard whispers that this company, which made great, popular games, was dying from a toxic work environment, where overwork, relatively low pay for the demands, and toxic management with little trust between managers and rank-and-file employees.
But whatever the cause, this is sad.

Weakupedia posted...

TWD final season is also canceled.

Huh, I wonder what this means for the people who have bought it

Refunds
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Somehow I'm hoping they try to wrap it up in episode 2 maybe just abruptly kill off Clementine
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ninkendo posted...

Somehow I'm hoping they try to wrap it up in episode 2 maybe just abruptly kill off Clementine

i hope her T-pose model just floats off into the sunset after getting bitten or something
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Weakupedia posted...

https://twitter.com/LawofTD/status/1043278296396357633?s=19

TWD final season is also canceled.

jesus

This better be wrong. They can't fuck over Clem like this. Especially for fucking MINECRAFT STORY MODE of all fucking things

and if it is true there better be a fucking refund for the remaining two eps from the season pass
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Weakupedia posted...

https://twitter.com/LawofTD/status/1043278296396357633?s=19

TWD final season is also canceled.

jesus

Damn I better get my money back Sony!!
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Weakupedia posted...

https://twitter.com/LawofTD/status/1043278296396357633?s=19

TWD final season is also canceled.

jesus

WHAT. NO.
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What will the remaining team do?
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voltch posted...

What will the remaining team do?

Apparently porting Minecraft: Story Mode to Netflix.

Because that's what everyone wants to do on Netflix is play a video game, let alone Minecraft: Story Mode.
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Underleveled posted...

voltch posted...

What will the remaining team do?

Apparently porting Minecraft: Story Mode to Netflix.

Because that's what everyone wants to do on Netflix is play a video game, let alone Minecraft: Story Mode.

Right? Can only wrap up one project...Lets do the absolute shittiest one and not the one for the series that skyrocketed our popularity in the first place!
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Mobilezoid posted...

Weakupedia posted...

TWD final season is also canceled.

Huh, I wonder what this means for the people who have bought it

I imagine it will be the responsibility of the individual stores (Steam/PSN/Nintendo/Microsoft) to issue refunds/store credit.
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Underleveled posted...

voltch posted...

What will the remaining team do?

Apparently porting Minecraft: Story Mode to Netflix.

Because that's what everyone wants to do on Netflix is play a video game, let alone Minecraft: Story Mode.

Contractual obligations
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I don't want to believe the TWD Final Season canceled thing, so I will wait for official announcement from Telltale
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ninkendo posted...

Somehow I'm hoping they try to wrap it up in episode 2 maybe just abruptly kill off Clementine

Considering it comes out on Tuesday, it was probably finished before they saw this coming. So probably not.

I wish there were a way they could like, allow Dontnod to finish this up or something.
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Wow, didn't see this coming.

Also though, they're finishing with Minecraft: Story Mode for Netflix instead of TWD for gamers? When TWD S1 put them on the map?

Gamers will remember your choice.
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HaRRicH posted...

Wow, didn't see this coming.

Also though, they're finishing with Minecraft: Story Mode for Netflix instead of TWD for gamers? When TWD S1 put them on the map?

Gamers will remember your choice.

Contractual obligations
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Weakupedia posted...

HaRRicH posted...

Wow, didn't see this coming.

Also though, they're finishing with Minecraft: Story Mode for Netflix instead of TWD for gamers? When TWD S1 put them on the map?

Gamers will remember your choice.

Contractual obligations

Still baffles me that they're contractually obligated to finish that and not a game that people have already shelled out money for.

Yeah they'll get refunded for episodes 3 and 4, but they'll still have paid $10 for a literally unfinished game.
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...how would Minecraft Story Mode on Netflix even work?
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HaRRicH posted...

Wow, didn't see this coming.

Also though, they're finishing with Minecraft: Story Mode for Netflix instead of TWD for gamers? When TWD S1 put them on the map?

Gamers will remember your choice.

Uhhh what are you gonna do, boycott them?
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Jakyl25 posted...

...how would Minecraft Story Mode on Netflix even work?

The same way other choose-your-own-adventure stuff on Netflix already works, I imagine. Look up Puss In Book if youre that curious.
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The player base will remember this.
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You can almost track their lifespan through TWD and the reception to it

Season 1: released to celebration and acclaim
Season 2: not bad but everyone's getting a bit bored of it
Season 3: Telltale is so pass that I honestly didn't know it came out for a long time
Season 4: Cancelled when the company folds
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Jakyl25 posted...

HaRRicH posted...

Wow, didn't see this coming.

Also though, they're finishing with Minecraft: Story Mode for Netflix instead of TWD for gamers? When TWD S1 put them on the map?

Gamers will remember your choice.

Uhhh what are you gonna do, boycott them?

For the rest of my life.
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Underleveled posted...

Still baffles me that they're contractually obligated to finish that and not a game that people have already shelled out money for.

Yeah they'll get refunded for episodes 3 and 4, but they'll still have paid $10 for a literally unfinished game.

It's not difficult to get. They had a contract with Netflix saying they must finish this game or be sued. With the consumers there is no contract. Just a transaction of money that can be returned.

I don't understand how bad this company was run when only three of their games turned a profit. Did they pay for the license for these franchises or we're they paid to make a game for the license? They must have paid for the license, because that's the only reason these games should not have made a profit. Because if Disney is paying you to make a game, they would probably give you enough money to make a profit on it.

Which begs the question... Why the fuck did you buy the license for all these franchises? Did they buy them because they didn't make money on anything and thought if they got a hot new property they could?

I'm just blown away at how they never considered ways to make money after they blew up to so many employees and so many projects they were working on instead of keeping a small staff of people to finish one project at a time.
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Exactly. It sucks hard for all the devs that the management team was that incompetent.
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It just doesn't make sense that almost everything was a failure
Most companies slow down or not release a sequel to stuff that failed
But if TWD S2 sucked, why did they make S3? why did they make Michonne? why did they make The Final Season?
Why did they make Batman Enemy Within if the first season didn't sell well?
Why did they make Minecraft Season 2 if t he first season didn't sell well?
Usually when people ask "why did they make a sequel to X" the answer is "because it makes money"
But not in this case
Was it all gambling? "maybe THIS time it will sale!"

Yes, there are cases of sequels to not-very-succesfu game series that were able to achieve insane popularity only thanks to their sequels (for example Fire Emblem Awakening, but there are better examples I just can't remember one now)
But when dealing with those kind of "games" that every game is similar to another...it's very, very very unlikely that one game will shine so much and be a commercial hit
To me it looks like they just gambled for a miracle that never came (nor was supposed to)
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Nanis23 posted...

It just doesn't make sense that almost everything was a failure
Most companies slow down or not release a sequel to stuff that failed
But if TWD S2 sucked, why did they make S3? why did they make Michonne? why did they make The Final Season?
Why did they make Batman Enemy Within if the first season didn't sell well?
Why did they make Minecraft Season 2 if t he first season didn't sell well?
Usually when people ask "why did they make a sequel to X" the answer is "because it makes money"
But not in this case
Was it all gambling? "maybe THIS time it will sale!"

Yes, there are cases of sequels to not-very-succesfu game series that were able to achieve insane popularity only thanks to their sequels (for example Fire Emblem Awakening, but there are better examples I just can't remember one now)
But when dealing with those kind of "games" that every game is similar to another...it's very, very very unlikely that one game will shine so much and be a commercial hit
To me it looks like they just gambled for a miracle that never came (nor was supposed to)

Well, Minecraft got a season 2 because aside from the first Walking Dead game and the short one they made after, that was the only thing that DID make money.

I assume they kept making the Walking Dead ones because they could re-use a lot of the assets they made. I didn't play any after the first game and the one after so don't quote me on that. But I assume Michonne was a way to hook fans of the show.

Maybe Batman sold better than everything else, but still fell short? And they thought they could hook people with the second one, since that's like the ONLY Telltale game I've seen any advertising for.

What they needed to do was sell this company off to someone who had money to spare. Sega probably would have done a good job with it. They could have funded a team to make a new system with it, prodded them to do better things with the system they have, and found money making ventures that actually worked and could have brokered deals with something like Marvel that meant they didn't pay as much for the licenses.

Hell, I don't understand why they decided to up and fire most of their staff rather than sell it to another company. That confuses me too.
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Just heard about this. Wow.

Having a hard time believing The Wolf Among Us didn't turn a profit though (IIRC it was their second best selling after TWD), but I guess there could have been hidden costs not directly associated with the game.
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Just did a quick Google search of them.

80% of their games were CSI games. Nothing of value will be missed.

Underleveled posted...

Because that's what everyone wants to do on Netflix is play a video game, let alone Minecraft: Story Mode.

It's like their only successful game so yeah pretty much
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Batman supposedly tanked real bad
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