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Telltale Games shutting down after Minecraft Story Mode [Update: TWD S4, ST, TWAU 2 cancelled]
- Thread starter CGiRanger
- Start date
Wow after seeing this I'm no longer shocked by the news. Had no idea their sales crashed this hard.
Considering Minecraft was one of their few successes, the sales difference between that on Steam (here) and elsewhere must be massive. It makes sense, I guess, since the Steam user base probably isn't quite the same as the Minecraft fanbase, but still.
Woof at Batman though. Maybe that one did better on consoles too.
Really, really sucks. I do fully believe that they'd have knocked it out of the park. Such a shame.
Jesus, who knew things were this bad.Wow after seeing this I'm no longer shocked by the news. Had no idea their sales crashed this hard.
Wow after seeing this I'm no longer shocked by the news. Had no idea their sales crashed this hard.
Unfortunately Telltale never evolved. They essentially put out the same template over and over again just with different characters and settings, but the core games were nearly the exact same. Consumers are only going to buy into the same thing for so long
They needed to start drastically shaking up the formula a long time ago
I'm sure a lot of people have/are going to make the "makes sense, their games haven't been good in ____ years" posts, but the fact is Batman: The Enemy WIthin was one of the most ambitious Telltale games both in its storytelling and in its structure. The game kept very close track of how you treated other major characters in the game, and the changes that were brought about by your decisions changed dialogue, some characters appearances, cutscenes, and, crucially, led to two completely different final episodes depending on your choice. The engine has been outmoded for years now, but Telltale has found new ways to show the ramifications of player choice year after year.
I'll miss them a lot, and it's hard not to see how influential Telltale's structure has been to storytelling in games.
I'll miss them a lot, and it's hard not to see how influential Telltale's structure has been to storytelling in games.
Jesus, that is nuts. And also coupling licensing costs no doubt that would easily kill a company. Though really should the writing have not been on the wall with how big YouTube/Twitch was getting that this genre of all genres would be eaten into?
In the hopes that one of them is a hit. It's easy to look at something like TWD: S1 and read it, at least in some part, as indicating that a popular and relevant IP would carry a game to success. Game of Thrones and Guardians of the Galaxy are particularly obvious in their intent to cash in on pop cultural phenomenons, perhaps failing to recognise that TWD as a game was in itself a phenomenon, one people might be drawn towards without nary a glance at its source material or the TV show that came out in close proximity.
Wow after seeing this I'm no longer shocked by the news. Had no idea their sales crashed this hard.
Minecraft was apparently a big moneymaker.
Just clearly not on Steam.
That's bonkers and really unfortunate. I've been mixed on their titles and kind of wrote them off because I felt all their games were the same in presentation and the engine was garbage (everyone moves like they're underwater and weird bugs from my experience). I played the first season of Batman two months ago and the ideas they came up with involving well-known characters of Gotham City was clever. It made me think about getting into their stuff again. Oh well.
RIP Telltale.
RIP Telltale.
Man, this really sucks. I hope everyone laid off is able to land on their feet at other studios.
Damn, they really were cruising off Walking Dead's 2012 GOTY Awards and little else.Wow after seeing this I'm no longer shocked by the news. Had no idea their sales crashed this hard.
Not a surprise to me at all. Anybody who followed their new releases knows that they had huge flops after flops in the last few years to a point where I didn't even know how are they still in business.
-Low key releases with no fanfare
-Mediocre reviews, zero hype
-Game sites barely covering individual episodes for their games.
-Episodic games are not working. Look at Hitman. It was a cool a idea last-gen but the novelty wore off quickly.
-Too many projects at once. Too rapid growth for the studio.
-Abysmal steamspy numbers for huge IPs, I mean low 10k-s for Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy. These are expensive properitys.
-Zero presence on available retail and digital charts for consoles. Sooo abysmal steam and console numbers equals horrible sales.
-Constant price cuts for their games usually after the 2nd or 3rd episodes
-Games on PS+ GWG all the time
-They handled many of the world's most popular beloved IPs but barely anyone talked about them.
-Mobile model didn't work. Nobody wants to pay the premium price on mobile. As far as I know almost every TT game is on mobile. I have never seen anybody in my life playing or even talking about TT games on mobile not even on gaming sites or forums.
-Walking Dead S1 was HUGE. It sold millions won many GOTYs. I hate the world reskin but basically thats what TT did with all their games. By now we know that in this gen you can fail hard by playing it safe and being an iterative sequel. They did this like 20 times now. I don't think their last 5 games combined did even half of what TWD did in unit sales. Played most of their games I can't remember a single new mechanic in any of their games compared to TWD S1 despite some REALLY basic stuff.
-TWD S1 STILL has the best story and characters in any TT game that is the sad truth.
All in all I'm still really sad about the closure and have good memories playing their games. I was really looking forward to TWAU 2. :( Wishing the best for them.
-Low key releases with no fanfare
-Mediocre reviews, zero hype
-Game sites barely covering individual episodes for their games.
-Episodic games are not working. Look at Hitman. It was a cool a idea last-gen but the novelty wore off quickly.
-Too many projects at once. Too rapid growth for the studio.
-Abysmal steamspy numbers for huge IPs, I mean low 10k-s for Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy. These are expensive properitys.
-Zero presence on available retail and digital charts for consoles. Sooo abysmal steam and console numbers equals horrible sales.
-Constant price cuts for their games usually after the 2nd or 3rd episodes
-Games on PS+ GWG all the time
-They handled many of the world's most popular beloved IPs but barely anyone talked about them.
-Mobile model didn't work. Nobody wants to pay the premium price on mobile. As far as I know almost every TT game is on mobile. I have never seen anybody in my life playing or even talking about TT games on mobile not even on gaming sites or forums.
-Walking Dead S1 was HUGE. It sold millions won many GOTYs. I hate the world reskin but basically thats what TT did with all their games. By now we know that in this gen you can fail hard by playing it safe and being an iterative sequel. They did this like 20 times now. I don't think their last 5 games combined did even half of what TWD did in unit sales. Played most of their games I can't remember a single new mechanic in any of their games compared to TWD S1 despite some REALLY basic stuff.
-TWD S1 STILL has the best story and characters in any TT game that is the sad truth.
All in all I'm still really sad about the closure and have good memories playing their games. I was really looking forward to TWAU 2. :( Wishing the best for them.
In my opinion, the lack of licensing wouldn't hold back a purchase of the studio. The studio that buys them up would just use them to build off their internal ips, so if it WERE THQ you might see them work on a Red Faction or Darksiders tale in the vein of Walking Dead, but in this case you are only getting a handful of employees if you do buy them up. They aren't going to rehire everyone let go.
With that being said though, I don't see a buy out of TTG happening. I see something similar to what happened with the closure of Blizzard North. The employees are all going to split off and make their own start ups that likely release new IPs built around similar foundations to the TT titles. The question will be how many of them will be successful decades after the closure. Unfortunately not many remain post Blizzard North any more either.
Just seems so weird that a studio of that size out of nowhere closes down due to bankruptcy. Like usually there would be lots of previous lay-offs, games that flopped, changes in company strategy, wouldn't there? Signs that things weren't so good and they're trying to fix it. From the admittedly limited information we have, it's as if they just kept going full speed on the exact same course without flinching until they hit a brick wall. But can't really fairly judge management without having all the info I guess. Really sucks for the employees regardless.
I had given up on telltales games years ago after seriously loving their early stuff. Things like monkey Island, puzzle agent and strongbad I really enjoyed, but Sam & Max became my favourite point N click series ever (along with broken sword). The humour, writing and absurdity in those games was top notch, and I was really sad they left the series behind for more lucrative IP's (even though Sam & Max season 3 was their most successful game at that point). Seems after that management became too big for their boots, expanding massively while going after big IP's and contracts. I wish they hadn't forgotten their beginnings, maybe things would be different had they not taken the path they did ;(
I had given up on telltales games years ago after seriously loving their early stuff. Things like monkey Island, puzzle agent and strongbad I really enjoyed, but Sam & Max became my favourite point N click series ever (along with broken sword). The humour, writing and absurdity in those games was top notch, and I was really sad they left the series behind for more lucrative IP's (even though Sam & Max season 3 was their most successful game at that point). Seems after that management became too big for their boots, expanding massively while going after big IP's and contracts. I wish they hadn't forgotten their beginnings, maybe things would be different had they not taken the path they did ;(
Harsh as it may be, this is a great post that perfectly illustrates my thoughts about Telltale. So many people shocked by the news when for me it just seemed inevitable, sad as it is :/
Sweet jumping Jupiter.Wow after seeing this I'm no longer shocked by the news. Had no idea their sales crashed this hard.
TWD Season 1 really was lightning in a bottle.
Pissing Christ. I always felt like they were putting out too many projects, but I had no idea they were doing that bad.
It looks like their support staff were some of the ones who were let go.
https://reddit.com/r/TheWalkingDeadGame/comments/9hug1q/this_is_actually_starting_to_get_to_me/
https://reddit.com/r/TheWalkingDeadGame/comments/9hug1q/this_is_actually_starting_to_get_to_me/
Other than the buggy releases, this is definitely the one that got me to stop buying their stuff until the seasons were complete. Like clockwork you would see something like 33% off by the time the second or third episode was released and 50 ~ 66% off shortly after the season was complete.
The Enemy Within deserved so much betterWow after seeing this I'm no longer shocked by the news. Had no idea their sales crashed this hard.
Man, when even Batman tanks...my heart goes out to the employees of Telltale, I hope they all find a new place to work soon. Created a number of my favorite games including the first two Batman seasons, Tales, BttF, and Sam & Max...now none will get a sequel. Wild, but again the more important thing is that there are places for these folks out of work.
Getting laid off so suddenly without severance is devastating, I hope they can all get picked up other studios in the area.
If the games stay up, presumably whoever buys up the rights in the firesale.
If the games stay up, presumably whoever buys up the rights in the firesale.
or at least to create your own IP.
Ex: Life is Strange,created by Dontnod,but Square owns the IP.
It seems like they bit off way more than they could chew and it slowly destroyed them.
I feel for all the people that worked there.
I feel for all the people that worked there.
Dang, that's shocking and unfortunate. I didn't know that they crashed this hard money-wise, post-TWD titles. I remember when they was just starting as a company with Back to the Future.
I hope everyone affected are able to bounce back and find new employment.
I hope everyone affected are able to bounce back and find new employment.
Not surprising ...when people only buy your finished seasons when they are on sale for less than 5bucks a couple months after release ....there is a problem and disconnect. Seems like the audience seemed to care less with every release....like if you played one of them you played all of them.
Still bummer to have more or less a confirmation now...the videogame buisness is cut throat.
Still bummer to have more or less a confirmation now...the videogame buisness is cut throat.
Well, you'd also expect that the production costs to make these kinds of games wouldn't be very high.
That's why you expect indie games to flourish, because they are technically simple and can get away with good ideas and writing without the need for million of dollars.
That's why you expect indie games to flourish, because they are technically simple and can get away with good ideas and writing without the need for million of dollars.
I just finished up The Enemy Within a few days ago and was looking forward to how the Joker I created was going to come back to haunt me. I love their takes on characters.
Just started GotG, it's really good, again they capture the characters so well.
Sounds accurate.Wow after seeing this I'm no longer shocked by the news. Had no idea their sales crashed this hard.
People picked up on their practices and buyers revolved around that. While others didnt like their history of buggy/unpolished games.
I'd totally support a well-polished telltale-like game. But that's not how they do business.
So based on the data it looks Walking Dead made them think they were the hot shit. They were able to get meetings with high profile content holders and sell them on game ideas because Walking Dead was hot shit. The problem was that every single one of those properties missed. Every single one based on that graph. They ramped up to 300 plus people to make all the games but they all lost money.
Seems like they should have focused on only one extra IP outside of the Walking Dead and make sure it was unique before trying so many different properties.
They probably thought they could get a hit out of one of those at least but none of them were even close to the original Walking Dead game.
Seems like they should have focused on only one extra IP outside of the Walking Dead and make sure it was unique before trying so many different properties.
They probably thought they could get a hit out of one of those at least but none of them were even close to the original Walking Dead game.
I wonder what's going to happen to their catalog of games. Most of them are based off other IPs. Will those IP owners still be able to sell their games on Steam, etc.?
Even worse is that even the average purchase price must have tanked meaning that many of those sales were at a deeply discounted price.
It's terrible, but honestly it doesn't surprise me because their games are so incredibly niche.
Didn't realise they had so many h employees either. Hopefully they all find new jobs in the industry ASAP.
Didn't realise they had so many h employees either. Hopefully they all find new jobs in the industry ASAP.
I think the management became blind by the success of the first TWD game and let the company grow too much, too fast. And then when the next games weren't the same kind of gigantic success, but with sales more like their previous games, they were too big to sustain itself. It sucks, I really looking forward to the sequel to The Wolf Among Us, but it's not surprising.