Will Telltale ever rebound?
I haven't seen anyone make a direct forum on this topic, and I'm curious to see what the rest of the community thinks about this.
As far as we know, Telltale has been financially struglling for some time now, and while the Netflix deal combined with the almost guaranteed hits of TFS and WAU 2 will keep the comany afloat for awhile, one has to ask the question: Will Telltale ever return to it's glory days of being arguably the biggest indie studio in gaming? And more importantly, what can the studio do, if anything, to re-earn that title, or at least get to a point of financial security?
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Personally I have no clue. Telltale will need to shake several stigmas about their games and make significant enough changes to the formula to make the general public take notice. I don't think that making great games with their basic formula is going to work anymore; Tales and The Enemy Within were both fantastic and as I far as I know still sold like shite.
TFS is not nearly an "almost guaranteed hit". ANF did irreparable damage to the series, and while some players may be more forgiving than others, the general consensus is that TWD has lost its sparkle.
TWAU S2 will probably sell well among us diehard Telltale fans but the general public? Meh. The Fables property not even close to the popularity of other IPs like The Walking Dead, Borderlands or Batman (and as you said, those last two sold like shit). Not to mention the first game will likely be 5(!) years old by the sequel's release, so no matter how well the game sold back in the day, a lot of casual fans could forget about it during that time.
Anyway, pessimist talk over- I really hope they can get back on their feet, but it'll take work. To return to their level of popularity at the end of TWD S1, they need to impress the wider gaming audience in the same way, whatever it takes. Spend more time on games between releases. No more mid-season rewrites. Dismantle the Telltale formula.
When it comes to discussing Telltale I prefer to be positive and optimistic when speaking about the company. Everyone on these forums know I do. I am not blind to the issues that were brought up by people in the past regarding the quality of the Episodes as well as reusing the same formula they used from The Walking Dead Season One. But the reason I don't sharpen my pitchfork and light my torch is because I see the effort and hard work put into their games as well as placing myself in the shoes of Telltale's Employees and realising that the work that they do isn't a stroll in the park. We all know what life was like at Telltale between 2014-2017. It wasn't easy for any of them.
In my opinion I think Telltale will bounce back. And with how amazing The Walking Dead: The Final Season looks I am confident that it will be sooner rather than later
I can see them rebounding but it will take a while and going forward Telltale will really need to step out of there comfort zones with their games.
Im kinda worried Wolf S2 wont sell well simply because its been such a long time. Im sure it will sell a lot better than their past games recently, but considering it took them so long, people who arnt die hard fans may have lost interest in Wolf S2 by now.
There actually does seem to be a pretty solid amount of hype around this season so far, if for no other reason then having 'final' in the title, but I suppose you could be right.
It has been 6 years since the first season, and I know ANF DID turn a lot of people off to the franchise.
I guess what I should have said is that it has the potential to sell well enough to keep Telltale afloat.
I think the Demo has actually done some good...people are digging the graphics and such...even if it is not a solid hit...it lays the groundwork for future games from Telltale.
WAU 2 will be an interesting beast, because on the one hand it IS Telltales 2nd best selling game of all time (on Steam at least) but the fact that's it been so long AND that Telltales reputation has been dragged down SO much might make it bomb. But I definitely think it'll sell better than the company's last three efforts, unless TEW sold fantastically on console to make up for the fairly poor Steam sales or TFS just completely fails on every level
TWD: TFS shouldn't expected to do that great. It'll probably sell okay or even pretty good if the critical reception and word of mouth is there, but it won't be nowhere near TWD: S1 or even TWAU, thanks to the prior seasons being rather hit or miss.
Wolf 2 has the potential to do a lot better than TFS, because Season One is still regarded as one of the, if not THE best thing Telltale has developed post TWD and Wolf 2 is by far the most anticipated game Telltale has worked on since TWD S2. If you can see the improvements Telltale has made to their games recently in the footage for Wolf 2, then it might help to get the word of mouth out there. If both games and Stranger Things end up really good, both in terms of quality and public reception, than i think telltale would be fine, as long as they keep their game output as low as possible.
Ever since Back to The Future, Telltale has experienced a type of Nickelback syndrome. Every game feels almost the same as the last. On top of that, the formula for Telltale games has been getting simpler over time. In a similar way, the Band Nickelback has produced a similar style of music since it's debut. Suddenly when Feed the Machine came out, it became clear that Nickelback had decided to morph the formula slightly and their ratings went up significantly. With TWD, not only have Telltale morphed the formula for The Final Season by making it Over the Shoulder (And Non-Linear Combat), but they have also reversed the Simplification of their formula for making games, bringing back the objectives as well as exploration. If Nickelback managed to increase their ratings by morphing the formula for their music, the same could be said for TFS of TWD. Plus when you consider the nostalgia factor, which (Like it or not) tends to make a shit ton a money for movies like The Force Awakens and anime like Dragon Ball Super, TFS is bound to make money.
Agree. Batman, TWD, and Borderlands had their fanbases even before the TTG series were made. Fables is so obscure as it s, and hardly anybody read it according to my friend circle.
Wolf Among Us is the only Telltale game that might have actually gotten bigger than its source material
I honestly think that they are planning on rebounding.
The new CEO is focusing on a different engine (which was the biggest criticism of Telltale), Batamn: TEW was very well received, the hype around The Final Season has been good, and people do love The Wolf Among Us, Season 2 has been long awaited.
I really think that they will bounce back