“The Walking Dead: The Final Season” video game could be left unfinished

“The
Walking Dead: The Final Season” could go from an anticipated
conclusion to an unfinished disappointment.
“The Walking Dead: The Final Season”/Telltale
Games

• “The Walking Dead: The Final Season” video game may be left
  unfinished due to layoffs at Telltale Games
• Since 2012, “The Walking Dead” players have been making their
  own choices in the story-driven, critically-acclaimed video game.
  “The Final Season,” which recently started, promised to finally
  wrap the story after so many years. 
• “The Walking Dead: The Final Season” was scheduled to last
  for four playable episodes — but now, episode 2, due out
  September 24th, will likely be the last.

Video game developer Telltale Games shocked the gaming industry
when they
laid off some 90 percent of their staff on September 21st, in
anticipation of what appears to be a total shutdown of the
company.

Known for narrative driven “choose your own adventure” games
based on popular franchises, Telltale had enjoyed critical
success with titles based on hit properties like “The Walking
Dead,” “Batman,” and “Game of Thrones.”

The announcement was particularly surprising to fans of
Telltale’s “The Walking Dead,” who were expecting a new entry
into the series in just a few days. “The Walking Dead: The Final
Season,” is the culmination of six years worth of storytelling,
and players have been able to carry over their own personal
decisions and story developments between four different releases
in the series so far.

Clementine,
the game’s heroine, has come a long way since her 2012 debut. Her
personality is shaped by player decisions.
“The Walking Dead”/Telltale Games

Each Telltale game has been released in a series of playable
episodes that are about 2 hours each. Players can pay for a
season pass in advance and play through all the episodes as they
are released, which are usually released a month or two apart.
“The Walking Dead: The Final Season” was planned to be four
episodes long, with the first being released on August 14 and the
second due on September 24th. But with the sudden shuttering of
Telltale’s operations, the ending that some players have been
working towards for years may now be in jeopardy.

“The
Walking Dead: The Final Season” seemed ready to bring the story
full circle.
“The Walking
Dead”/Telltale Games

In a statement on September 21st, Telltale Games confirmed that
all but 25 members of its 250-person staff had been laid
off. Melissa Hutchinson, the lead voice actress of “The
Walking Dead” video game, posted a statement to Twitter sharing
her fears that the final season would be left incomplete after
episode two is released.

Hutchinson played Clementine, a young Asian-American girl who
comes of age in the zombie-infested world of “The Walking Dead.”
Players shaped the personality an eight-year-old Clem with their
in-game decisions as she grew into a powerful protagonist in her
own right. After three full seasons of character development,
Telltale promised a conclusion to Clementine’s story with “The
Walking Dead: The Final Season.”

Clementine’s
story will likely be left unfinished.
“The Walking Dead”/Telltale Games

Now, gamers who paid $19.99 for the final season’s may be short
changed for the last third and fourth episode might be short
changed, and fans who have invested their time in “The Walking
Dead” game for the last six years may be left without closure.