Telltale Games allegedly laid off “most” of its employees last month, according to one of the people affected. The former staffer did not provide any further details as a result of a non-disclosure agreement. As yet, Telltale Games has not responded to the claims.
Former cinematic artist Jonah Huang made the claim on X earlier today, adding that he was unable to comment on the status of the long-awaited The Wolf Among Us 2. It’s the second time that Huang has been caught up in layoffs surrounding Telltale Games. He was also among those affected by the original studio’s closure back in September 2018, having then worked as a lead cinematic artist on series including Batman: The Enemy Within and Minecraft: Story Mode.
The laying off of some employees from Telltale Games may have been to be expected as the company has just finished publishing The Expanse: A Telltale Series, and it’s not unusual for staff to be let go after winding up a project. However, given that game was developed externally by Deck Nine, it should not have had any significant impact on the team working on The Wolf Among Us 2. The news also comes just a couple of weeks after Telltale acquired ERICA developer Flavourworks as a means of increasing its ability to commit to game streaming technologies.
It also comes amidst a bevy of layoffs across the entire gaming industry, affecting studios from Naughty Dog to Epic Games to Crystal Dynamics.
In the thread that followed the initial post, Huang said that he did not seek to cause harm to Telltale by disclosing the lay offs, that he rejoined the company in 2022 because he “always wanted to work on TWAU2 (as a fan of the original)“, and that he wants to see Telltale succeed. He also took the opportunity to push for unionization within the game industry.
This is a sore subject, but I feel it necessary to add to the gaming layoff news: Telltale laid most of us off early September. Status of TWAU2, I can't say (NDA).
Now, I focus on what matters to me—my own game, and the following words:
Games industry, we must UNIONIZE.
1/5
— jjonahjonahson (@jjonahjonahson) October 5, 2023
The news also throws the status of The Wolf Among Us 2 into the air. The last official word on the project was that it had been delayed from 2023 to 2024 alongside a shift to Unreal Engine 5, which necessitated much of the work to be redone. We will continue to update you on what’s happening with Telltale Games and The Wolf Among Us 2 as we learn more.
