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I feel sorry for the employees and apologize in advance if what I'm going to say sounds too negative or blunt, but anyway here is one opinion. Telltale games wa

I feel sorry for the employees and apologize in advance if what I'm going to say sounds too negative or blunt, but anyway here is one opinion. Telltale games wasn't a very innovative company. It shouldn't surprise anyone when a company goes bankrupt that primarily produces bad game adoptions of blockbuster movies as a franchise. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm only a gamer and not an industry expert, but it seems to me that too many managerial constraints on creativity and fear of innovation are the #1 game company killers.

jamesrcole 8y ago
> primarily produces bad game adoptions of blockbuster movies as a franchise. What are you talking about? Not one of their games is even an adaptation of a movie. Some are related to movies but separate stories not adaptations, and the majority have nothing to do with any movies (this includes the Batman game).
- noirbot 8y ago
  They did do a Guardians of the Galaxy one, but in general, not a lot of movies. They did do a ton of work (exclusively?) with other people's IPs, which may have been what they were trying to say.
  - jamesrcole 8y ago
    But that wasn't an adaptation of the movies. It's an original story, and based on the comics not the movies.
    - ByThyGrace 8y ago
      GP did say 'adoption', not 'adaptation'. I think the meaning is conveyed: they consistently tried to build a business of creating games out of existing franchises. But it was every time the same kind of game.
      - jamesrcole 8y ago
        They said "game adoptions of blockbuster movies", and I made no other point than that they are not "adoptions" (whatever that means - I'm pretty sure they meant to say adaptations) of movies.
moreira 8y ago
Shouldn't surprise anyone, no, but "250 people would find themselves with no job, no severance, and health insurance that would be gone by month’s end — just nine days." That's appalling, and that's the real issue being discussed in the article, not the failure of the company. Horrific mismanagement of the situation, and shows a complete lack of respect for your staff.
- kevingadd 8y ago
  Horrific feels like an understatement, to have the studio collapse like that on short notice without severance and insurance is basically fraud. They made promises to employees - some literally new hires - and then failed to fulfill them. They likely are also reneging on promises they made to partners and investors, all because they decided to try and skate the company along on the hope of big money coming in at the last minute. It's wildly irresponsible under any circumstances but for this to happen at a well-established studio demonstrates catastrophically bad judgement and general moral bankruptcy on the part of studio heads. It's quite possible they could have entirely avoided this by not scaling the studio so large. 250 people is a LOT for a game studio, even one with multiple projects going. Telltale used to be much smaller and the money might not have run out.
fsloth 8y ago
"bad game adoptions" At least their "Wolf among us" was an extremely enjoyable adaptation of an existing comic book franchise with a novel story.
- izacus 8y ago
  Batman series was also excellent and it surprised me how far it went away from canon Batman representations. Not to mention Tales from the Borderlands being one of the funniest games I've ever played. On the other hand, the new Walking Dead seasons and Game of Thrones were exceedingly dull.
- muraiki 8y ago
  And they were working on a sequel... :(
whywhywhywhy 8y ago
If your success is connected to building upon the brands of others then don't be shocked if you have little control over how much success you can actually achieve. I feel sorry for people who lost their jobs but at the end of the day the people who have the creative vision for: Walking Dead, Back to The Future, Jurassic Park, Borderlands, Game of Thrones, Minecraft, Batman and Guardians of The Galaxy do not sit within the 4 walls of Telltale. If there is not someone with creative vision and ownership of your product within your company then the people calling the shots are sales and partnerships. Actual product always comes second to closing these deals and riding brands of others. You can see this in their product lineup, when things went sour they didn't change the product, they just diversified the brands.
woodrowbarlow 8y ago
> Telltale games wasn't a very innovative company. based on the article, it seems like most of the telltale developers agreed with you. they cited previous management's unwillingness to deviate from previous successes as the largest source of creative stagnation. the article implies that the newer CEO was making big, positive changes in this area but that it was too little too late for the company.

jamesrcole 8y ago

> primarily produces bad game adoptions of blockbuster movies as a franchise. What are you talking about? Not one of their games is even an adaptation of a movie. Some are related to movies but separate stories not adaptations, and the majority have nothing to do with any movies (this includes the Batman game).

noirbot 8y ago
They did do a Guardians of the Galaxy one, but in general, not a lot of movies. They did do a ton of work (exclusively?) with other people's IPs, which may have been what they were trying to say.
- jamesrcole 8y ago
  But that wasn't an adaptation of the movies. It's an original story, and based on the comics not the movies.
  - ByThyGrace 8y ago
    GP did say 'adoption', not 'adaptation'. I think the meaning is conveyed: they consistently tried to build a business of creating games out of existing franchises. But it was every time the same kind of game.
    - jamesrcole 8y ago
      They said "game adoptions of blockbuster movies", and I made no other point than that they are not "adoptions" (whatever that means - I'm pretty sure they meant to say adaptations) of movies.

moreira 8y ago

Shouldn't surprise anyone, no, but "250 people would find themselves with no job, no severance, and health insurance that would be gone by month’s end — just nine days." That's appalling, and that's the real issue being discussed in the article, not the failure of the company. Horrific mismanagement of the situation, and shows a complete lack of respect for your staff.

kevingadd 8y ago
Horrific feels like an understatement, to have the studio collapse like that on short notice without severance and insurance is basically fraud. They made promises to employees - some literally new hires - and then failed to fulfill them. They likely are also reneging on promises they made to partners and investors, all because they decided to try and skate the company along on the hope of big money coming in at the last minute. It's wildly irresponsible under any circumstances but for this to happen at a well-established studio demonstrates catastrophically bad judgement and general moral bankruptcy on the part of studio heads. It's quite possible they could have entirely avoided this by not scaling the studio so large. 250 people is a LOT for a game studio, even one with multiple projects going. Telltale used to be much smaller and the money might not have run out.

fsloth 8y ago

"bad game adoptions" At least their "Wolf among us" was an extremely enjoyable adaptation of an existing comic book franchise with a novel story.

izacus 8y ago
Batman series was also excellent and it surprised me how far it went away from canon Batman representations. Not to mention Tales from the Borderlands being one of the funniest games I've ever played. On the other hand, the new Walking Dead seasons and Game of Thrones were exceedingly dull.
muraiki 8y ago
And they were working on a sequel... :(

whywhywhywhy 8y ago

If your success is connected to building upon the brands of others then don't be shocked if you have little control over how much success you can actually achieve. I feel sorry for people who lost their jobs but at the end of the day the people who have the creative vision for: Walking Dead, Back to The Future, Jurassic Park, Borderlands, Game of Thrones, Minecraft, Batman and Guardians of The Galaxy do not sit within the 4 walls of Telltale. If there is not someone with creative vision and ownership of your product within your company then the people calling the shots are sales and partnerships. Actual product always comes second to closing these deals and riding brands of others. You can see this in their product lineup, when things went sour they didn't change the product, they just diversified the brands.

woodrowbarlow 8y ago

> Telltale games wasn't a very innovative company. based on the article, it seems like most of the telltale developers agreed with you. they cited previous management's unwillingness to deviate from previous successes as the largest source of creative stagnation. the article implies that the newer CEO was making big, positive changes in this area but that it was too little too late for the company.