According to a post today on X (formerly Twitter) by developer and artist JH, the revamped Telltale Games reportedly laid off most staff working on The Wolf Among Us 2 in early September. JH notes they “can’t say” anything about the status of the game due to an NDA, and go on to thread resources for developers looking to organize their workplaces, including IATSE’s Twitch channel, and resources on GameWorkers.org.
On JH’s website for their new game, Faye Freelance, they note that they worked as a cinematic artist and lead cinematic artist at Telltale from 2015-2018, then worked at the revived studio “contributing to in-development work for The Wolf Among Us 2… until a very recent layoff.” Their X bio and other resources that they are “formerly at Telltale (twice).
Is the new Telltale in trouble?
The news comes after an eventful year for the newly revamped Telltale, which secured $8 million in funding last winter, launched The Expanse: A Telltale series this summer, and acquired Erica developer Flavourworks in August.
Infamously, the original Telltale Studio (known for the 2012 The Walking Dead series, The Wolf Among Us, and much more) closed its doors in 2018, and the studio was reformed the next year.
We’ve reached out to Telltale for comment and will update our story accordingly.
Update 10/6: A Telltale spokesperson responded to Game Developer confirming the layoffs, and offering the following statement:
“Due to current market conditions, we regrettably had to let some of our Telltale team go recently. We did not take this action lightly, and our commitment to storytelling and finding new ways to do so remains the same. We are grateful to everyone for their dedication along this journey, and we are working to support everyone impacted. All projects currently in development are still in production, and we have no further updates at this time.”