Telltale Games has reportedly suffered massive layoffs, suggesting that the studio might be shutting down.
Telltale employees took to Twitter and other social media sites over the weekend to state that they had lost their jobs. As the numbers grew, it became clear that these were not isolated incidents. However, the extent of the layoffs was not yet known.
Now, though, Gamasutra and other sites are reporting that sources close to the situation have announced that Telltale Games has laid off an astonishing 225 employees. That means that a small crew of 25 remains on staff. The identity and job titles of those employees are unknown at this time.
Here’s what we do know: these layoffs mean that Telltale Games will not release The Wolf Among Us 2, Stranger Things, or any other games that they had previously announced they are working on. This also presumably means that they will not be moving away from their infamous in-house engine as has been previously suggested. Our understanding at this time is that Telltale Games’ skeleton staff is going to finish developing The Walking Dead‘s final season. Beyond that, there seems to be very little chance that the studio will remain open.
This is the latest in a long line of unfortunate incidents for the studio. Last year, they laid off 25 percent of their staff. They were then sued by co-founder Kevin Bruner (who has taken to his blog to share his sadness over the news that so many talented people have lost their jobs). Things seemed to have been looking up for the studio when they revealed several high-profile new projects and plans for the future, but it seems like the true story of what was going on was far direr than anyone could have suspected.
We wish every Telltale employee that lost their job today the best of luck moving forward, and we will continue to update you on this situation as more information becomes available.