And they lived happily ever after.

[owsf2000]

Looks like Telltale Games is closing down for good once the final chapter of the Walking Dead story they're working on is out. They've already laid off all but 25 of the 250 staff members.

I can't say I'm really going to miss them since I don't think I've even played any of their games. I might have one of them bought... maybe... but if I do I haven-oh yeah! the kings quest thing was by them wasn't it?

Let's check the wiki!

Ok, I think I have that Monkey Island game on the PS3. Haven't touched it yet.

And no, that Kings Quest game wasn't by them. Haven't touched it either mind you.

I think I have the first free chapter of the Strong Bad game.

Nothing else on that list does anything for me. So yeah, I guess I can see why they're going out of business. <_< Well, I was originally interested in the Minecraft Story Mode. Up until they released a physical disc with just 1 chapter on it. With a coupon for the rest. IE: A demo game on disc with a coupon to buy the rest. However, if I wanted to get it digitally I wouldn't be interested in the stupid physical game now would I? By the time they actually finished the game and released the "complete" physical edition, it was firmly on my boycott list and I had forgotten about it. I still don't have it and have zero interest in getting it. Apparently they were only given 30 minutes after receiving their notice to pick up their shit and exit the building.

Comments

[kane_magus]

I'm ambivalent, but mostly leaning on the side of "good riddance to bad rubbish." I used to love Telltale, for the most part. I've played several of their games, and when they worked properly, they were pretty cool. When they didn't work, which was way too often, they were rage-inducing.

Until further info comes in, I'm simply going to translate "insurmountable challenges" as "shitty management decisions."

"The layoffs come a few months after revelations that Telltale was a studio mired in toxic management that included employees being subjected to constant overwork." Yep, when those in charge of the company are pure shit, I'd have to say that those are some pretty insurmountable challenges, there. It didn't help that I think they bit off way more than they could chew, with all the games being announced and such, and then they were spread so thin that the games they were working on suffered for it.

It sucks for the employees who had to put up with that shit, but at least maybe now they can get jobs at companies without such shitty management.

[kane_magus]

And, yeah, King's Quest was was Activision via The Odd Gentlemen.

As for Telltale games that I've played... let's see... in rough order of release, because I have poor memories of the order in which I actually played them... and some of these I had to check Wikipedia myself before I even remembered them.

Sam & Max. All three seasons. I loved the old Hit the Road game made by LucasArts, and these were fairly close to that (outside of being 3D instead of pixel art). Pretty decent for old-school point-and-click adventure games (as opposed to the QTE-fests that later Telltale games became).

SBCG4AP. For being a game series based on Homestar Runner, it was pretty awesome. For being a game made by Telltale Games, coming right off of the Sam & Max games, it was pretty lackluster. The humor and character content was great, at least if you give a shit about the world of Homestar Runner. The actual gameplay... not so much. General point-and-click, but kind of generic, even for that, aside from the occasional hit-or-miss mini-game.

Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures. These are no longer even available for purchase, unless you can find used copies somewhere, due to Telltale losing the license or whatever, so kind of a moot point, regardless. They were pretty good, what I recall of them.

Tales of Monkey Island. I liked this pretty well. No real issues of note.

Puzzle Agent. Steam says I played that for less than an hour and a half. I don't remember much of anything about it, so it must not have made much of an impression on me if I abandoned it after such a short time. I also have the second game, which I haven't touched.

Poker Night at the Inventory. It's a poker game. Nothing to write home about. It was entirely about the interactions between the strange characters from various different properties, and as far as that went, it was pretty funny, I guess? I played the sequel for maybe five minutes, max.

Back to the Future. Another one that I can say I liked quite a bit. No real issues with it that I can recall now.

Jurassic Park: The Game. Eeeehhh... I like it well enough, from what I recall, which honestly isn't that much. One of the first of their QTE games, which many would claim is when Telltale jumped the shark. I don't agree with that, because I don't have as big a problem with QTEs as most seem to, but whatever.

The Walking Dead seasons one and two, and the 400 Days DLC thing between them. They were pretty good, once I worked around the progression bugs. Nice that you don't have to know anything about the comic books or the show to play, though I'm sure there were references that I missed. Haven't touched the later seasons (which I don't own) or the Michonne thing (which I do own but just haven't gotten around to playing), yet. I might still try to get the next, third season of TWD and give a try someday, assuming it doesn't get pulled from Steam entirely. I won't be touching the fourth, final, unfinished season with a 10-foot pole, though, until and unless they actually finish it, which they almost definitely won't do if they're shutting down.

The Wolf Among Us. I liked this one enough that I played it twice, pretty much back-to-back, first as a squeaky clean good(-ish) guy and as a full-on asshole (as much as the game would let you be a full-on asshole, anyway). As with TWD, you don't need to know anything about the comics to play it, though again I'm sure I missed a lot of references and such. Lack of the follow up to this is probably the only thing I guess I really regret, but... meh. *shrug*

Tales from the Borderlands. Uh, I own this, but haven't touched it yet. That's less due to issues with the Telltale game itself, and more because I haven't been able to finish Borderlands 2 in the two times I've attempted to play through the series. I own all the Borderlands games, but the only one I've completed (twice, so far) is the original.

Game of Thrones. Aside from a few cameos, it could have just been generic Game of Thrones fan fiction with shitty OGs that were like a poor man's version of House Stark. It was pretty meh, okay for what it was, I liked it well enough, yadda yadda. Not the best thing in the world ever, especially given the broken progression issues. I went through both the novels and (up to the end of season five of) the show before playing this. Yeah, there were references, but... meh. As such, I guess you don't need to have read the books or watched the show to play this. I don't know if I'd recommend it, either way.

Minecraft Story Mode. I played the actual season proper, at least. It was okay, I guess. No real bugs or issues that I remember. Nothing offensive about it that I can recall, aside from the DLC-whoring bullshit (which is probably another reason the company went down the toilet). I didn't play the extra episodes, however, because when I tried to do so, I ran into a text bug that was apparently never fixed, and that was pretty fucking offensive to me. Never fixing your fucking games and sending out useless, generic formulaic responses to bug reports is a good way to run yourself out of business, indeed.

Batman: A Telltale Series. Never got past the intro section, due to it being an unplayable roach motel. This was when I really fell off the Telltale train. I don't own the second season of this, and have little interest in doing so, until and unless I ever retry and successfully finish this first one, which I also have little interest in doing so at this point.

[kane_magus]

I think I'll miss more the idea of Telltale Games, and what it used to be, than I'll miss what and how they actually ended up as.

Sort of like how I don't give a single flying fuck about modern day Blizzard or BioWare, among many many others, but sorely miss what all they used to be, before they went to shit years ago.

[kane_magus]

So, apparently, you can no longer edit comments on Dreamwidth once they have replies to them, which sucks because I see typos/missing words/extra words that I'd have otherwise fixed. >_>;