Telltale Games is back

[LESS T_T]

Resurrection: https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...-Industry-Executives-Purchase-Telltale-Games/

Veteran Game Industry Executives Come Together to Purchase Telltale Games

The New Management Team & Publishing Partner Athlon Games to Reissue Select Back Catalog and New Installments of Beloved IPs

August 28, 2019 08:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LCG Entertainment, a holding company that will be doing business as Telltale Games, today announced that it has purchased the defunct studio’s key assets, trademarks, technology, and select intellectual properties with the intent of re-releasing select games from the studio’s back catalog and developing new games in some of the company’s best-selling brands. The purchase, led by Jamie Ottilie and Brian Waddle, was made possible by a pool of investors and advisors comprised of well-known names in the games industry including Chris Kingsley, Lyle Hall, Tobias Sjögren, Athlon Games (as a shareholder and publishing partner), and several additional partners.

Originally founded in 2004, Telltale Games became synonymous with storytelling, pioneering the episodic game format, and changing the way the games medium embraced narrative. Following a string of successful and award-winning game series based on television and film licenses and original IPs, the game developer and publisher shuttered in October of last year, leaving disappointed fans in its wake.

“All of us were big fans of the games Telltale created, as we strongly believe in games as a storytelling medium and nobody did it better,” said Jamie Ottilie, CEO of the new Telltale Games. “Even now, when you see a game with strong narrative, it’s always compared to Telltale, so it’s no surprise that players and industry colleagues alike mourned the studio’s closure. We believe there is still so much life to the brand and its franchises, and we look forward to building upon the company’s storytelling legacy.”

The new Telltale Games will be headquartered in Malibu with a satellite office in Corte Madera, California. Day-to-day operations will be handled by Ottilie and Waddle, with Ottilie responsible for studio management and technology, and Waddle running business development, finance, and operations. Both will work closely with Athlon, who will serve as the marketing and publishing partner on most of the company’s back catalog and new releases, freeing up Telltale to focus on development and studio growth.

Key talent from the original company has been hired or contracted by the new Telltale. The new company will be based on a streamlined structure with plans for strategic growth and a focus on its core and new IP’s. No further details are being released about the Telltale assets purchase price. News regarding the reissue of specific back catalog titles and new games in existing IP’s will be announced in the coming weeks.

“There is still a huge fanbase of Telltale players and that’s one of the main reasons we decided to make this investment,” said Brian Waddle, chief revenue officer for the new Telltale Games. “It’s hard to see your favorite games disappear or not get the sequels they deserve, so we thank everyone for their patience and support. We’ve got some exciting things to share soon. We’ll try not to keep them waiting too long, but we think fans will be pleased.”

GameDaily Connect is hosting a fireside chat with Jamie Ottilie discussing the relaunch of Telltale Games today at its conference at 4:30 pm in the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. To learn more about the new Telltale Games, please visit www.Telltale.com.

About LCG Entertainment/Telltale Games

LCG Entertainment is a privately held company, headquartered in Malibu with a satellite studio in Corte Madera, California. LCG Entertainment owns the brand, assets and various IP from the original Telltale Games company. Formerly an award-winning independent developer and publisher of both original and licensed IP games for every major interactive platform, Telltale Games pioneered the episodic delivery of digital gaming content. Initially founded in 2004, Telltale won numerous accolades for its best-selling game series, including The Walking Dead, Batman: The Telltale Series, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, and more. LCG Entertainment will be operating and marketing games under the Telltale brand going forward. For more information on the new Telltale Games, please visit www.telltale.com.

About Athlon Games

Athlon Games, a subsidiary of Leyou Technologies Holdings Limited, is a global publisher of free-to-play console and PC games headquartered in Los Angeles. Athlon Games combines its expertise in free-to-play console and PC games with Western development to create AAA cooperative console and PC experiences that gamers will want to play for many years.

 

[Belegarsson]

Truly a walking dead.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Step 1. Buy failed game company.
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Profit!

Zep--

 

[Burning Bridges]

bought for 1$ with the perspective to release mobile games.

Key talent from the original company has been hired or contracted by the new Telltale.

we have the lavatory woman and contacted a couple hipsters who have been unable to find new jobs

 

[Tom Selleck]

I'm aight if they keep making those Batman games.

 

[WallaceChambers]

Wolf Among Us 2 is hype, I'm ready for that shit.

Neo TTG pls take a note from everyone else in the AA/AAA adventure space and at least include some light puzzles & exploration. At least Life Is Strange 1 tier if not The Council. These games need some amount of interactivity.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

 

[Rahdulan]

Step 1. Buy failed game company.
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Profit!

Zep--

To be fair their problem was obvious mismanagement and spreading themselves out too much. It almost became a classic case of quantity over quality. Telltale could work as a developer, but not by releasing the same game over and over again.

 

[Modron]

To be fair their problem was obvious mismanagement and spreading themselves out too much. It almost became a classic case of quantity over quality. Telltale could work as a developer, but not by releasing the same game over and over again.

They probably could have if they paired down on the employees, 5 people famously finished the last 2 episodes of Tales from the Borderlands after it failed to meet the sales expectations of upper management and people generally said those were the best ones.

 

[True Ukrainian]

Team RGG of Yakuza fame has 80 full time members. When you count all contractors and VAs it swells to around 300. Think about that. A massively profitable titan requires less full time employees than whatever crap Telltale was making.

 

[deuxhero]

Step 1. Buy failed game company.
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Profit!

Zep--

I could understand buying the corpse cheap on the premise you'll make your money back on Steam sales/bundles/whatever eventually, but trying to do exactly what made it fail in the first place? That's just retarded.

 

[Andhaira]

I'm aight if they keep making those Batman games.

Were they actually good? I can't imagine a Batman game without any combat to be any good. That's aside from the horrible engine they use which struggles with processing basic framerates of cardboard cutout pseudo 3D models.

Telltale Games Returns Under New Ownership

Last year, Telltale Games caused a major stir in the gaming industry when they abruptly laid off the majority of their workforce before ceasing operations. Now, Polygon reports that LCG Entertainment, in partnership with Athlon Games, purchased Telltale’s rights and assets from creditors to “revive” the company. The executives and founders of the original company, who are currently battling a class action lawsuit, are not a part of this venture.

The new version of Telltale Games will be headquartered in Malibu, CA and will be led by Brian Waddle and Jamie Ottilie, neither of whom worked for the original entity. Ottilie told Polygon that the company will have back catalog rights to licenses properties like The Wolf Among Us and Batman as well as original Telltale games. He believes the adventure game industry will continue to grow, so he wants this company to evolve Telltale’s previously established episodic model to fit current media consumption habits like marathon watching shows.

Disappointingly, former Telltale employees are only being offered freelance roles with the ambiguous possibility of full-time positions later on. The announcement has drawn mixed reactions from fans with some expressing their excitement for a familiar brand’s return while many others feel it’s an opportunistic move to use Telltale’s name for industry leverage. It’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out



One thing is for sure: there will not be any Walking Dead nor Stranger Things games coming from Telltale. Skybound Entertainment stepped in to finish Clementine’s epic apocalypse arc while Stranger Things rights are now completely back in the hands of Netflix. Right now, it’s not clear what will happen with ongoing licences for properties like Game of Thrones, Minecraft, and Guardians of the Galaxy, so fans will have to patiently wait for that news.

https://nerdist.com/article/telltale-games-new-ownership/

 

[Rahdulan]

I'm aight if they keep making those Batman games.

Were they actually good? I can't imagine a Batman game without any combat to be any good. That's aside from the horrible engine they use which struggles with processing basic framerates of cardboard cutout pseudo 3D models.

Surprisingly enough Batman S2 was pretty damn good, although I suppose how much it speaks to you personally depends on whether you like Joker as a character or not. It's laid out almost as if they had a good chunk of the story already written instead of improvising from episode to episode like Telltale usually did. Either that or promoting Kirkbride to season lead designer really paid off.

Also, reactions to people bitching about whoever the new investor is deciding to hire former staff as freelancers so they'll actually be brought back based on the quality of their work are hilarious. When you consider The Walking Dead last season was finished by what, single-digit number of employees after it made a comeback following the cancellation we can surmise there must have been a ton of dead weight at the company. You can always rely on private investors to go lean.

 

[True Ukrainian]

In that interview posted above the former staff said that Batman S2 was made after most of the executives were gotten rid off. This seems to agree with the theory that Telltale had been forced to churn out templated crap on the orders of their bosses.

 

[Boleskine]

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/12/19/telltale-says-its-building-a-non-crunch-work-environment

Telltale Says It's Building a 'Non-Crunch Work Environment'
Telltale is back, and different from before.

By Matt Kim

When LCG Entertainment announced it would be reviving Telltale Games as a new company, there was some confusion. After all, the old Telltale had such a high-profile closure that news of its revival created whiplash among the community and even former employees. The new version of the company understands there might still be frustration over the revival, but says all it can do is build a crunch-free environment and create Telltale-quality content.

“These are always hard questions to answer,” said Telltale when IGN asked how the studio intended to handle a relaunch of a studio that closed when scrutiny over labor practices in the video game industry was at an all-time high. Especially since the last Telltale was itself partly brought down by a hostile work environment.

“All we can do is be forthcoming; we can’t control whether critics hear or believe us. The truth is we are a new company — with different ownership and management, and a different approach as to how we structure a studio in today’s market.”

Since 2017, the entity now known as the former Telltale struggled to stay afloat financially. The issues stemmed from a crowded development pipeline with quick turnarounds for the company’s episodic-style video games. This, in turn, led to intense crunch at the company.

The new Telltale, which is operated by a management team not associated with the former version of the company, says it won’t repeat the same mistakes as the old one. “We are taking a measured and methodical approach to growth in order to ensure we can provide a stable, non-crunch work environment. We are building this into our culture from the outset.”

Spoiler

The new Telltale has been saying as much since its revival, but you’d be forgiven for having a hard time hearing this message. “There is always confusion and clouding of messaging when trying to restart a company that was dissolved. Even more so with a beloved brand like Telltale that came to an abrupt end,” Telltale said.

The first major game out of the new Telltale is The Wolf Among Us 2. Details are sparse, but Telltale says that this is a “complete reboot” of the game. It will not be associated with a previously announced Wolf Among Us sequel that was announced by the old Telltale. Which, again, adds a layer of confusion to Telltale’s current situation.

As announced, The Wolf Among Us 2 will be on a new, Unreal-based engine. But the company says it is “in the process of recreating the most important aspects of the Telltale tool for the new pipeline." To help, Telltale hired Zac Litton, the former VP of Engineering at the former Telltale and head of the Telltale Tool, as CTO.

Telltale also reached out to AdHoc to develop The Wolf Among Us 2. Adhoc is a separate company made up of ex-Telltale developers including The Wolf Among Us 1 directors Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart and The Wolf Among Us writer Pierre Shorette.

On working with Adhoc, Telltale says:

"We approached AdHoc. We started the conversation very early on in the process because we really wanted The Wolf Among Us 2 to be a faithful sequel to the original and to be the first new game to enter development at the new Telltale. We spent quite a bit of time discussing the project with the team and AdHoc, making sure that this would be a good partnership The team at AdHoc was always our first choice to lead the narrative and cinematic direction for this game, and we are thrilled to be working with them."​

However, with the old Telltale name and working on an already announced sequel developed by former developers, on a new engine that’s being worked on by the former head of the old engine; new Telltale will likely continue to face some confusion over how exactly it will be different from old Telltale.

“Of course, we’re frustrated by people who have suggested this is opportunistic or simply a money grab for the catalog of games without even giving us a chance,” Telltale says. “We have all jumped into this with the intention of standing the company back up and continuing the legacy of telling stories that people want to play. However, most of this was expected and, really, all we can do is put our heads down and focus on making great content worthy of the Telltale name.”

 

[Mustawd]

lol, good luck!

 

[Boleskine]

The new physical studio won't have crunch, because all the crunch will be outsourced to India.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

“We are a totally different studio, and have learned from the egregious mistakes of the previous Telltale, and that is why we have decided to call our ALL NEW, ALL DIFFERENT studio ‘Telltale’”.

 

[Rahdulan]

Brand Power™.

 

[Baron Dupek]

They did it again


Status of The Wolf Among Us 2 - unknown

 

[InD_ImaginE]

They did it again


Status of The Wolf Among Us 2 - unknown

I don't know what they were thinking picking The Expanse as their intermediary game AND putting it as Epic exclusive with also almost 0 marketting

I know the game exist through pirates site which I will never knew otherwise

 

[Tom Selleck]

Holy shit, I am a colossal storyfag and I have played all Telltale games, and I had no fucking idea that this Expanse game even existed, either, and then I checked the Epic site and it came out IN FUCKING JULY!? Absolutely outstanding marketing and word of mouth, guys. Though, I'm sure the TenCent Epic Game Store guaranteed money must be more than it would make if it were released anywhere else, I guess. Because I don't know shit about the Expanse except for the one episode I saw where Tom Jane was wearing a dumbass hat in space.

 

[Rean]

Holy shit, I am a colossal storyfag and I have played all Telltale games, and I had no fucking idea that this Expanse game even existed, either, and then I checked the Epic site and it came out IN FUCKING JULY!? Absolutely outstanding marketing and word of mouth, guys. Though, I'm sure the TenCent Epic Game Store guaranteed money must be more than it would make if it were released anywhere else, I guess. Because I don't know shit about the Expanse except for the one episode I saw where Tom Jane was wearing a dumbass hat in space.

I think I'll bite the bullet and play those games eventually, maybe after the next episode comes out. I didn't like a single character in The Expanse TV show aside from Amos and still watched the whole stupid thing to the end.

 

[negator2vc]

So it's time for Telltale Games v3?
Telltale Games isn't a big company (~40 people) so they can't just trim the fat like in other big companies.

 

[negator2vc]

Holy shit, I am a colossal storyfag and I have played all Telltale games, and I had no fucking idea that this Expanse game even existed, either, and then I checked the Epic site and it came out IN FUCKING JULY!? Absolutely outstanding marketing and word of mouth, guys. Though, I'm sure the TenCent Epic Game Store guaranteed money must be more than it would make if it were released anywhere else, I guess. Because I don't know shit about the Expanse except for the one episode I saw where Tom Jane was wearing a dumbass hat in space.

Just watch the first 3-4 seasons of the show and avoid the game which based on what I hear it's mediocre at best