With the unfortunate news of Telltale Games closing still echoing around the globe, many of the company's employees finally spoke out and confirmed in the process that The Walking Dead: The Final Season won't be getting a conclusion.
It turns out that the company's employees were even more stunned by the news than the general public, because they were notified of Telltale's in a flash meeting that none of them saw coming. They were given 30 minutes to pack up and leave the premises, without any severance or anything of the sort.
Telltale's former gameplay programmer and cinematic designer Scott Hamack took to twitter to say that all he wants to do at the moment is rest. "But since we got no severance and our insurance expires at the end of the month, I don't have that luxury", he added.
The no-severance thing is even more painful after considering that Telltale was notorious for subjecting its employees to a never-ending crunch, which was the only way that the company could deliver everything on time. Their former character artist Brandon Cebenka pointed out the irony of his sleepless nights and long weekends not earning him severance, encouraging industry peers to refuse overtime unless they're paid for it.
In the meantime, Netflix confirmed that Minecraft: Story Mode will continue as planned, which is likely the reason why Telltale kept 25 employees onboard. Netflix still plan to go ahead with a Stranger Things-based game, but it's too early to talk about the dev as they're still their options. After all, Telltale's trademark brand of storytelling is a pricey commodity. It wouldn't be inconceivable to see Campo Santo or Night School Studio in this role, seeing as how they're both made up of Telltale's refugees, but time will tell.
After pleading that she no longer be asked about Telltale's future releases, the company's now-former narrative designer Emily Grace Buck said that the entirety of The Walking Dead: The Final Season's team has been terminated and that the game will therefore not see the light of day.
Some users suggested that the team should still finish the game on their own time, prompting Buck to write ".. no. Very no. They underpaid & overworked us to give you what you already have. We aren't gonna make it for free... after they fired us?"
Telltales
As much as the news of Telltale leaving the scene may be sad, most of its workers will probably be better off honing their craft elsewhere. The company reportedly took all the legal steps to ensure no possibility of legal backlash, keeping their workers in the dark until the last moment, which goes a long way to show that legality and ethics aren't always on the same page.
