Telltale Games layoffs leave only 25 employees, down from 400 in 2017

Telltale
Games

• Telltale Games, the studio behind narrative-driven
  adventure games based on properties like “The Walking Dead,”
  “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “Game of Thrones,” is reportedly
  winding down its operations.
• The Verge reports that Telltale Games is laying off a
  significant number of employees, and will retain a crew of
  about 25 people.
• Last August, Telltale Games told Eurogamer that it
  employed about 400 people.
• The layoffs come just months after another report
  detailed cultural issues within the company, including
  “constant overwork” and “toxic management.”

It looks like Telltale Games, the studio behind
narrative-driven games like “The Walking Dead” and “Game of
Thrones,” might be winding down its operations.

The Verge on Friday reported that Telltale Games laid off “a
large number of its staff,” and keeping a small group of around
25 employees.  Furthermore, The Verge reported that most
affected employees were laid off suddenly and without
severance. 

Telltale Games
told Eurogamer last year that it employed about 400
people; a
round of layoffs in November brought that number to down
310.

The new layoffs come just months after
another report from The Verge, which detailed how
cultural issues within the studio, including “constant overwork”
and “toxic management,” had driven away its best
developers.

Though Telltale Games isn’t completely shutting down, it
does look like the company is winding down operations
significantly. Matt
Kim, an editor at USgamer,
reports that Telltale will focus on finishing the final
season of its “Walking Dead” title, already in progress — but
that future projects, like “A Wolf Among Us 2” and a title based
on Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” are effectively
cancelled. 

We’ve reached out to Telltale Games for more information, and
we’ll update the story if we learn more.