And then there were none
The sudden and unexpected near-shuttering of Telltale Games rocked the video game industry two weeks ago. Telltale laid off approximately 250 employees, which was about 90 percent of its workforce. A skeleton crew of 25-or-so people were kept on to fulfill outstanding obligations to partners, namely wrapping up Minecraft: Story Mode for Netflix.
Now that’s out the window too. Narrative designer Rachel Noel confirms that Telltale’s last remaining employees were laid off today, seemingly well before their work was finished.
Heeeeyyyy remember how there was going to be a skeleton crew staying on for a while and I was part of it? Nah, jk, we all just got laid off, too.
— Retchel Necronoelicon (@anameformyself) October 4, 2018
One possible explanation for this is that Telltale has found itself exposed to being on the hook for the layoffs two weeks ago. Former employees have filed wrongful termination lawsuits at both the federal and state levels. (For what it’s worth, Noel says that the skeleton crew did not receive severance packages; neither did the 250 people who were let go in September.) There’s a chance Telltale is cutting overhead to prepare for litigation and/or liabilities resulting from those lawsuits.
Regardless of the reasoning, it appears that Telltale is now completely dead — even if the saga is still far from over. As always, our best wishes go out to all the former employees who were affected by the Telltale layoffs.