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Telltale Games is reportedly closing down for good as games disappear

Telltale Games is reportedly closing down for good as games disappear

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The end of the line for Telltale

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The Walking Dead Clementine screencap
Image: Telltale Games

Telltale Games is reportedly closing for good and selling off all its assets, according to a report by GameDaily. The co-founder of Sherwood Partners confirmed to the site that it would be handling the liquidation, and a former employee reported that their post employment healthcare insurance will stop at the end of November rather than after 18 months as was expected. Copies of the “Assignment for the benefit of creditors” agreement (a non-court process similar to bankruptcy) and letters to creditors have also emerged, and a number of the company’s games are no longer for sale on Steam.

The developments bring to an end the slow decline of Telltale Games, which has been rocked by scandal after scandal in its final year of existence. At the end of last year the studio announced that it would be laying off a quarter of its workforce, shortly before allegations emerged that the company was beset by issues relating to its toxic management culture. Events reached a head at the end of September this year, when Telltale announced that it would be laying off all but 25 of its employees without severance.

Walking Dead’s final season to be completed by Skybound Games

At the time, the studio’s CEO insisted that “we’re not shutting down,” and described the move as a “majority studio closure” that would allow the remaining employees “to fulfill the company’s obligations to its board and partners.” In the month and a half since the layoffs, development of the final season of The Walking Dead has been shifted to Skybound Games. Yesterday’s developments suggest that the “company’s obligations” have now been fulfilled.

The report notes that several of Telltale’s games have disappeared from sale on Steam, including Back to the Future and Tales of Monkey Island. However, although the final season of the Walking Dead was temporarily pulled from sale, it is now back up on the store along with other Telltale games including Game of Thrones. Other platforms such as GOG, PSN, and XBL have so far been unaffected.

A copy of the agreement of the assignment proceedings has also emerged, which appears to be signed by the company’s CEO, along with a letter sent to creditors and shareholders. The company’s CEO Pete Hawley, who has either deleted or hidden his Twitter account, has changed his LinkedIn status to show that his time at Telltale ended this month.

Although the company had not responded to a request for comment at the time of the report’s publication, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that this is finally the end for Telltale Games. Its two unreleased projects — Stranger Things and The Wolf Among Us Season 2 — are now unlikely to ever see the light of day.