Narrative journey developer Telltale Video games, the studio at present 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 through a put up on X (previously Twitter) by former Telltale cinematic artist Jonah Huang, who mentioned that these layoffs occurred in early September:
It is a sore topic, however I really feel it essential so as to add to the gaming layoff information: Telltale laid most of us off early September. Standing of TWAU2, I can not say (NDA).
Now, I deal with what issues to me—my very own sport, 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:
As a result of present market situations, we regrettably needed to let a few of our Telltale workforce go lately. We didn’t take this motion frivolously, 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 help everybody impacted. All tasks at present in growth are nonetheless in manufacturing, and we’ve no additional updates presently.
Notably, Huang was a part of the primary iteration of Telltale Video games as nicely, which equally underwent important layoffs earlier than closing fully in 2019. The shutdown was attributed to traders backing out, however a yr later, LCG Leisure revived the enterprise identify and several other of its belongings, hiring plenty of its former employees as nicely. 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 yr, 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 present 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 plenty of main studios this yr and final. These embody layoffs at Naughty Canine, Workforce 17, Ascendant, Blizzard, BioWare, Epic Video games, Blackbird Interactive, Putting 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.