Narrative journey developer Telltale Video games, the studio at the moment engaged on The Wolf Amongst Us 2 and which simply launched The Expanse: A Telltale Collection, has undergone layoffs which one former worker says impacted “most of” the studio.
The information first circulated by way of a publish on X (previously Twitter) by former Telltale cinematic artist Jonah Huang, who stated that these layoffs befell in early September:
It is a sore topic, however I really feel it vital so as to add to the gaming layoff information: Telltale laid most of us off early September. Standing of TWAU2, I am unable to say (NDA).
Now, I give attention to what issues to me—my very own recreation, and the next phrases:
Video games business, we should UNIONIZE.
1/5
— jjonahjonahson (@jjonahjonahson) October 5, 2023
Telltale has confirmed that it has undergone layoffs in a press release despatched to IGN, however didn’t affirm the quantity or extent. Its assertion is as follows:
On account of present market situations, we regrettably needed to let a few of our Telltale group go just lately. We didn’t take this motion evenly, and our dedication to storytelling and discovering new methods to take action stays the identical. We’re grateful to everybody for his or her dedication alongside this journey, and we’re working to assist everybody impacted. All initiatives at the moment in growth are nonetheless in manufacturing, and we now have no additional updates at the moment.
Notably, Huang was a part of the primary iteration of Telltale Video games as effectively, which equally underwent important layoffs earlier than closing solely in 2019. The shutdown was attributed to buyers backing out, however a 12 months later, LCG Leisure revived the enterprise identify and several other of its belongings, hiring quite a few its former staff as effectively. At The Sport Awards in 2019, it introduced it was making a sequel to Telltale’s The Wolf Amongst Us for a deliberate launch in 2023. Then earlier this 12 months, we sat down with Telltale CEO Jamie Ottlie, who defined the sport was being delayed as a consequence of struggles porting it from Unreal Engine 4 to five and a want to keep away from crunch. It doesn’t at the moment have a brand new launch date.
As Huang notes, these layoffs appear to have occurred simply weeks after Telltale acquired UK-based studio Flavourworks.
These layoffs come as a part of an ongoing development of business mass layoffs which have impacted quite a few main studios this 12 months and final. These embody layoffs at Naughty Canine, Staff 17, Ascendant, Blizzard, BioWare, Epic Video games, Blackbird Interactive, Placing Distance, BioWare once more, Ubisoft, Scavengers Studio, CD Projekt, Embracer Group’s quite a few subsidiaries, Deviation Video games, The Molasses Flood, Relic Leisure, Xbox, Riot Video games, Unity, and lots of extra.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Acquired a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.