Variety: AMC and Smilegate backed out of Telltale Investment Last Thursday, along with Lionsgate
Found an article that most likely explains why Telltale ended up firing 90% of their workforce last Friday with little to no heads up.
- Apparently, the studio was in talks with both AMC and Smilegate, a Korean developer of online and mobile games, for a huge investment.
- Details were not given as to the extent of the talks, but it would have more than likely kept the company afloat (for a while) had an agreement been made.
- Telltale management on Thursday said they were pretty confidant that a deal would be reached soon.
- Both companies ended up backing out of the deal suddenly with no explanation on Thursday.
- Lionsgate, who invested in Telltale several years ago, also pulled their investment in the company.
Seems like upper Telltale management was relying very heavily on this deal to go through, sort of putting all of their eggs into one basket. Had this deal gone through, the company may have been able to keep going, but since it didn't, Telltale had to resort to firing 90% of their staff the next day in the ensuing fallout.
For more info, read the full article here: https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/amc-smilegate-telltale-closure-1202957632/
Also made a video where I mainly discuss the article in question, and a bit about the class action lawsuit.
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Dammit AMC
Honestly this makes a lot of sense, and it does make management slightly more sympathetic in my eyes. They're still idiots, but it sounds like they genuinely had no clue this was going to happen.
Yeah definitely. Again, it seems like management, especially Hawley, was trying to do everything possible to save them, including these negotiations, and they just didn't see this happening to them. They shouldn't have jumped the gun and assumed they were set in stone, but you can now see why they were acting like everything was fine all of last week up until the ultimate firing.
Excuse me but what the fuck? You wanted to hurt your own company by suing them and now you're acting like you care?
Seriously, you were the former CEO of the company, you were it's co-founder and was highly involved with what was going on before you became CEO, and you didn't know that something like this could happen?
What a crock of shit, he knew full damn well what financial state the company was in, and he didn't care, nor does he now. He's trying to cover his own ass and deflect all the criticisms off of him, when in reality, Telltale wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his decisions. As if people didn't have enough reasons to hate this guy, the news of Telltale shutting down has just made us hate him even more than we thought possible.
That's fucked up. Really fucked up.
Seems like this is why they went under, we all knew something had to have happened and this seems to be what.
As for Bruner, really cant stand his bs anymore. We've known Telltale was in finical issues, not the worst at the time but it was clear that they made it very very clear that Bruner suing them was going to be a huge issue for them, especially if he won. Its so obvious it isnt funny, he knew that if he won Telltale would die, yet now that they died through investors ditching he acts upset. Wouldnt even be surprised if investors knowing Telltale was going to have to go through a law suit could have been a factor for them not wanting to be involved.
so sad, i hope they pull through. im all for them to pay their employees once they actually have money.. as for now i hope they dont close for good and start anew without all the toxicity.
The following post is in regards to the class action lawsuit, which I know isn't the complete focus of the thread, but still pertinent info regarding Telltale.
While I am a business student, I must admit that stuff such as the WARN Act, which is what the Telltale employees are suing in regards to since it appears Telltale may have violated aspects of the law, is not exactly my area of expertise. But, I'll try to see if I got things right here.
What the former employees are saying here is that Telltale management violated the WARN Act, which can require harsh financial penalties if found guilty, including back pay and benefits for each violated day in accordance with both the federal version and the state of California's version of the law (as Telltale is located in California).
Under the federal WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act of 1988, companies with more than 100 employees are required to provide 60 days of advance notice before mass layoffs (so that would mean Telltale might be financially obligated to pay both backpay and benefits for 250+ employees for 60 days, plus interest). Mass layoffs would be considered, under the law, a termination of 50 or more employees within a 30 day period, if the total comprises of at least 1/3rd of the companies workforce, which would apply to Telltale since they fired 90% of their workforce. The law was passed thanks to a veto-proof Democratic majority of both houses of Congress, without President Ronald Reagan's signature. In a very Democratic-heavy state like California, laws of this nature are much stricter and harder for companies to challenge.
However, under the federal version of the law, there are noticeable exceptions that can be found which may benefit Telltale in their case. The most notable is what's known as the "unforeseeable business circumstances" clause. For a company to use this as a defense, they must prove that the layoffs were caused by factors that were not reasonably foreseeable (reasonable being a key term here which is frequently used in law, but is often very subjective in nature). With the recent revelation that the planned investments with AMC, Lionsgate, and Smilegate did not come to fruition as was expected, this could potentially be used as a legal defense by the company. As the layoffs came as a result of these deals not being made, it ultimately prompted Telltale to start immediately laying off staff to save money. However, disputes may be raised as to whether this could be seen as "reasonably foreseeable" and can be argued as reckless behavior by Telltale's management (as I said, they put all of their eggs in one basket, which was not a very smart move, so they may have some culpability that puts this out of the realm of not being reasonable). In my opinion, if a contract between the parties was reached and one of the investing parties suddenly pulled out of the agreement and withdrew their financial investment, Telltale would probably have a much stronger case here. But since that didn't happen and Telltale sort of jumped the gun in assuming the deals were set in stone, this could work against them.
However, let's say their defense works, that still does not put Telltale out of danger, because the lawsuit, while filed in federal court, also cites California's version of the law. As mentioned, California's laws regarding this matter are much more strict and far more favorable to employees and workers. One such difference between the federal version and California's version: there is no "unforeseeable business circumstances" clause under California law. Meaning that, even in situations where there is an unforeseeable cause that prompted mass layoffs, the company may still be held culpable for their actions and be forced to pay their employees for the full 60 days. So in this regard, Telltale is pretty much screwed. Richard Hoeg, an attorney, even said: "The fact that California did not bring over the pertinent exemption would seem to put [Telltale] in a precarious compliance position with the state.”
TL;DR: Telltale is probably fucked legally, even with the revelation of investment deals going south because of California's stricter laws regarding mass layoffs.
If I see Bruner again lamenting the death of this Studio I am going to snap....that fucker...
Time to get the riot gear
Fuck you, Bruner, you're not devastated, you retarded piece of shit. You don't get to be sorry about any of this because you're the main reason The Walking Dead A New Frontier was garbage and you made the best employees waste their time on Guardians of the Galaxy and Minecraft Story Mode games and now they lost their best job because of your lying mouth. You're sorry about Telltale closure when not one year ago, you sued them for seeking financial damage over the summer. No one deserves your stupid apologizes, you're only lying to yourself to escape trouble. And this is how I end this conversation with your dumb ass:
You know with TFS being expected to do worse than previous entries, they probably were so confident and hopefully with this deal because it was the only think else they could do.
Dude, I agree that Bruner is full of shit but please don't use it as an excuse to hate on the games you personally don't like.
It's not just about the game. It's about the studio as well. The employees who got fired were pretty talented and I feel nothing but devastation over their loss. Look where we are now, The Final Season's fate is unknown and The Wolf Among Us Season 2 is cancelled. Clementine needed those guys to finish her story and now she will get half lifed.
Sure AMC is to blame as well but Kevin Dickhead started this mess first after Batman Season 1.