Why I am not Sad TellTale is closing.
Now don't get me wrong I feel for the employees who got laid off with out notice or even severance. I hope they all find Jobs and do well in life after this downfall. I been here since the start. I even have of the few CSI games TT made back in the day. But the company was dying a low death since Walking Dead. Before then they made great games and treated their employees better. They downfall of the company was Jurassic park that is when the interactive movies started. I know I am not the only one many people kept asking for another Tales fo Monkey island, Back to the Future, and even more Sam & Max. Once the Walking Dead came out they got a really big head and that is when the company stoped being the company they formed.
If you know the history of TellTale you should know that this company was formed after Lucas Arts pulled the plug on the Sam & Max sequel. So Kevin Bruner, Troy Molander, Dan Connors who was working on the sequel left Lucas Arts and Founded TellTale a few moths after. They main goal was to make another Sam & Max game. In fact it was that IP that landed them a deal with GameTap. Because of this they start off well people who loved adventure games loved this company. They loved adventure games and it showed in their work.
Once they got the licensee for walking dead it changed the company. They saw that on people were interested in the game. The problem is this is where making money was more important than the game. Now I get it you need make money to make more games and keep the company going. I hate walking dead but the first game was one of a kind and people loved it. But that money stopped them from evolving. Pretty much all the games after the walking dead are the same. Just cookie cutter games one right after another. Even with Sam and Max each season improved ideas and even add more mechanics. Tales of monkey island was different and so was Back to the future. They just lost their creative spark and saw that the Walking Dead model sold well so there for it works. That is what killed them. When you make the same game over and over but with different characters it just starts to get to you. Nothing new or nothing driving you to buy the next game as you think well this is just the same game I will wait.
That didn't stop there either. Reports saying that they started to treat their employees like bigger game studios do. more work no extra pay and mandatory overtime. This is a 180 compared to what TaleTell used to be. People used to love working at TellTale. Now they pushed them so hard they had a very high turnover rate. The company just forgot why the made the company in the first place. Greed is what happens to companies and this is that exact same story.
Now I used to loved TellTale games. In fact I bought S&M ToMI and Back to the future on multiple systems. Even bought it twice on PC. Even bought the special boxed edition for BTTF. I gave TellTale a lot of money. I stopped supporting them after The Walking Dead as every game was the same after that. Now I know people love it and I didn't want them to stop making them as it made many people happy. But don't forget your fans of the people who helped you get to where you were. You could have made some adventure games or hell even more seasons of the past games I have mentioned. But they didn't. So you people not getting A Wolf Among Us 2 or even getting to finish the waking dead. That is how we old supporters felt when they went with the interactive movie format.
Making the same games over and over, treating your employees like crap and not listening to your fans is what did it for TellTale. So no I am not sad TellTale is closing. I am super sad about the people who worked there and have to find work on a last minute notice. Don't support a company that is horrible to their employees and fans.