The Verge released an article discussing the Layoffs and the Future of Telltale
The Verge recently released an article that discusses Telltale's history from what they used to be and what they are now. It also talks about the layoffs and how current employees feel about what is in store in the future.I will include a link to the article below. I want to take this opportunity to say that I do not dislike any former Telltale Employees or hold a grudge against any of them. I still really enjoy their content. They are my favourite developers and I dream of working at Telltale one day. But the article contains accounts from former employees who talk about what it was like to work at Telltale post- Walking Dead Season One and so forth. If this discussion upsets any Telltale Staff or anyone affiliated with Telltale then please close this discussion. Thanks for reading and have a great day
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17130056/telltale-games-developer-layoffs-toxic-video-game-industry
Comments
I think this shows fairly clearly that as much as we love the range of games that Telltale has done in the last couple of years the frequency and pressure that makes, especially in including choices and consequences which are significant, has burned a lot of them out. I gather the new CEO has got plans to shake things up once Batman is done so maybe Walking Dead and WAU’s new seasons will have a different structure or release window?
Very interesting read.
It's sad that the overall management of projects just got worse after their success in 2012, and that the higher-ups didn't have too much of a civil, critical eye on the good work. This was just one of those cases where there was a disconnect in content/profit balance.
It's been a pretty hard time for Telltale I'm sure, it's clear that there wasn't much room to break away from The Walking Dead's initial principles in development from what we've heard here and in the past (5 Episode seasons, constant development after each episode, rewrites that endanger a deadline, a complicated construction method with an old engine). Hopefully with what we've been hearing in the past few months, and what that last line dictates:
Some well-deserved changes are coming, both for the dev team and for the players themselves. (Though to be fair, the quality in Telltale's work has been seeing a lot more acclaim since last year's Walking Dead season, and to an extent the overlooked GOTG. Batman S2 is quite possibly their biggest breakout hit in a while.)
Best of luck to any Telltale staff out there!
P.S. Glad to hear about how well the layoffs were handled. Seemed very sudden, shocking, and disheartening at the time, but good to know those people got the proper resources before leaving and the whole process was fairly accommodating to both them and their colleagues.
Great article. Not surprised in the least regarding the push for quantity over quality, but I am surprised over Kevin Bruner's seemingly egotistical manner. He's a smart man that helped bring Telltale into the limelight with Walking Dead but without anyone keeping his ego in check it eventually brought down Telltale. Good on him for realising what he was doing and stepping down.
The new CEO Pete Hawtley seems to be doing a good job so far in regards to the treatment of employees (especially with how the firings were handled) as well as letting creativity thrive (as can be seen with Enemy Within) which is absolutely fantastic to hear.
The last line really has me excited for the company's future.
Hopefully Telltale really has something special cooking with the final season of The Walking Dead.
I wish them all the best
EDIT
Went to the Games subreddit to read reactions from the article to find that not many people actually read anything past the headline (which is annoying as fuck) but I did find a couple people who claim to be former employees of Telltale saying that while they agree with most of the article they didn't like how they made Kevin a villain. Yes he was abrasive and egotistical but he was actually a nice guy outside of game development.
What a shocking surprise! It's almost as if making the same game 10 times over in the time span of a few years is a bad idea! Who would've thought!
This is not news. A lot of Glassdoor reviews on the company confirmed everything said in this article (and sometimes when other users would post them a handful of people on these forums would discredit it all). For anyone interested, a particularly interesting one was posted yesterday. I'd advise yall to check it out, it's called "Do NOT work here".
Again, taking this with a dose of salt. Anyone can write a review. Click the Review button up top, put in the company name, and you're taken straight to a page where you can write whatever your feelings are for the company and its inhabitants.
A lot of the problems mentioned there seem to have been related with the previous management, this most recent interview mentioned a need for change and a more loose grip on creative talent, and the criticism on Unity, while valid, doesn't stop other games from being successful on it. Life is Strange being a big user of it.
But hey, it could be true. People have opinions, and I don't work there so what do I know?
I hope TTG's staff is cool with this staying up. I really like this article. It gives us the transparency many have been wanting in probably the most neutral and appropriate setting. I definitely appreciate how the article tried its best to get both sides of the stories showing both pessimistic and optimistic perspectives. As controversial as he may be to former employees, current employees, and fans, I do give props to Kevin for actually responding back to The Verge for the article. I'm sure they reached out to some of the other controversial names I've seen float on this forum and elsewhere but didn't get a response. Maybe with due time, we'll get their side as well.
The only glimpses we've had before were from Glassdoor reviews. While I do appreciate those reviews, many seemed to be written out of bitterness and hurt while other were to merely be positive or neutral to counteract the negative (not saying they were not genuine, just that they were prompted by the negative reviews than TTG actually being that great of a place to work). The article kind of gives a backstory to many of those reviews. I feel like I understand the many of those reviews better after reading that article, especially as you go back further in time closer to 2012. They timeline of TTG that the article goes through correlates with those reviews. However, the article gives more details that many of us have wondered about.
I'm not expecting to see the full impact of the change in the final season on TWD (though I've heard that GOTG was good and that Batman: S2 is possibly one of their best games). However, I think TTG might be able to recapture that bright light that they once had in the next year or so. I know they said they want to show their change. My theory is that TWD is going to be a received well but not a massive success leaving fans with a feeling of "finally, why wasn't this here before" and TWAU: S2 being the real kick start into the new are of TTG.
Also, this article sort of confirmed that GOT: S2 is still in the works but the "Super Show" concept and Liongates game are cancelled. I know there were rumors, but it's nice to see it from a more legitimate source (no offence fellow forum members).
Glassdoor reviews have to get approved by Glassdoor staff before actually going public.
I can't know how the company is right now with its new CEO, but all we've been given so far are words. People should try not to forget that. While I also am not exactly against them going over to Unity (after all, literally anything would be an improvement over the Telltale Tool), it might take so much time to get the company actually running with it, I'm afraid that when they do start changing things up with their horribly stale formula I will no longer be interested in their titles. I am not at all hoping for TWDs4 to be that big a game changer when it comes to Telltale and its lack of innovation, and you bet that'll be a crucial title to keep them relevant after that series ends and even afloat.
I think things have improved, GOTG and Batman S2 especially have shown how well hard work and real choice and consequence can be achieved. And I will be interested to see how they might handle WD and WAU differently, whether that's a different look at the episodic model or some other aspect.
In THEORY: YES.
In REALITY: NO. Glassdoor staff doesn't care to review anything. It's dishonest.
I hope the new management takes the things written in this article to heart. What worked as a small studio doesn't usually scale well. Let's get a good track record going in 2018, and then maybe things will be better going forward.
It's been really disconcerting to read of the state Telltale has fallen into from these inside sources. Just imagining the brilliance these creative teams could've pulled off with competent software and less toxic upper management is pretty disheartening. I do hope these drastic changes that the company has been through are for the better. I don't want to see Telltale fall apart and I do hope that they'll be able to recapture the magic that put their new gameplay style on the map to begin with.
I hope Telltale will get better. I have watched and seen Telltale grow over these years. I would hate to see the staff not be appreciated for their work and effort.
Everything this article has said I've been assuming for the past couple of months, but ever since Guardians and Minecraft S2 came out (I have yet to play Batman but will before Ep. 5 comes out) I've seen a massive improvement in quality Pete Hawley certainly knows what he's doing, and I hope they only improve with TWD S4 and TWAU S2.
Things are definitely on the up in terms of quality. There was a huge improvement from GoTG ep 3 onwards. The Enemy Within is the best Telltale game in a long time. Let's hope it continues.
I’m glad to hear things are improving at the workplace. Still, it makes me really sad on what happened before that I wish I could hug all those people and what they went through all that crap.
Somebody please dress up as a dinosaur and cheer the staff up right now T.T I mean it!
Very good read. It is interesting to read that their biggest success was their biggest hurdle to bring in new ideas. It was classy how they handled the layoffs, I was saddened that they happened. I hope they find their groove again...perhaps with an original IP.
I'm a simple man....I only care about the outcome,not excuses.
It seems indirectly implied since the old CEO (the main vocal advocate) is gone, some TTG's staff have a cancelled project listed on their LinkedIn accounts, and articles like this one don't mention about it. We've heard articles confirm GOT: S2 and TWAU: S2. The only thing we haven't heard anything about since the leadership change has been the supershow and the Lionsgate game assuming the two are separate projects.
I said "...sort of confirmed", so I wasn't 100% sure on my assumption.