Author Topic: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-present  (Read 330343 times)

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Offline RABicle

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Offline broodwars

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #901 on: September 21, 2018, 03:51:53 PM »
Developing story: Telltale has laid off 225 of its 250 employees. The remaining employees will finish Walking Dead Season 4, and then the studio will close.

I was a big Telltale fan since the original Sam & Max Season 1, but it's hard to argue that Telltale hasn't spent the last 6 years since Walking Dead Season 1 spinning their wheels & pissing away all their goodwill. I did love Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, and Batman S1, though.

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Offline lolmonade

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #902 on: September 21, 2018, 03:56:35 PM »
That one hits me hard, as I loved both The Walking Dead S1 and The Wolf Among Us.  I was really hopeful they'd get to making The Wolf Among Us S2 and Stranger things, but I wonder if they tried to take up too many projects, and then dontnod effectively eats their lunch with Life is Strange with how good that series is both with the choices you can make and the polish those games comparatively had. 

Offline pokepal148

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #903 on: September 21, 2018, 03:59:54 PM »
Broodwars beat me to it. It's a really surprising bit of news in that I've been under the impression that telltale has been churning out the same game 11 times a year. You'd think that the operating costs there would be pretty small.

Offline Stratos

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #904 on: September 21, 2018, 07:07:58 PM »
When churning out the same games you tend to shrink your market share with each iteration unless you got some  hook, and the IP themes alone stopped being a good enough hook.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #905 on: September 21, 2018, 07:18:25 PM »
Going to miss Wolf Among US season 2. I imagine all the voice acting and animations made their style of game cost more than other games of a similar scope.

Offline ejamer

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #906 on: September 21, 2018, 09:07:53 PM »
Mixed feeling about this.

I have a long-standing appreciation of point-and-click adventures, and TellTale really is responsible for some great titles and a general revival of that genre over the past decade plus. Unfortunately, their games suffered from some pretty consistent problems on the technical side and some writing/design choices that seemed to stagnate. (Or maybe that's just my impression...)

They will definitely be missed, but will leave behind a solid (if somewhat mixed) legacy.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #907 on: September 21, 2018, 09:11:54 PM »
There's a rumor going around now online that Telltale will not be finishing Walking Dead Season 4, but instead the Minecraft Story Mode deal they already had with Netflix

If that's actually true, then they need to offer refunds for Walking Dead S4 Season Pass owners, somehow. I wonder if someone besides THQ Nordic will buy them out before the end.
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Offline Shaymin

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #908 on: September 21, 2018, 10:15:00 PM »
THQ will buy it in 2023 for like, ten bucks.
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Offline MagicCow64

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #909 on: September 22, 2018, 12:33:12 AM »
It's hard for me to feel too bad about this. Their actual adventure games ranged from okay (Back to the Future, Sam and Max Season 1, some of Monkey Island) to great (Sam and Max Seasons 2 and (especially) 3, some of Monkey Island), but they never should have gone further in the story game direction than Jurassic Park. (I actually think Jurassic Park was their most fun narrative game because of the constant pressure, "hit point" system, and actual obstacles.)

I enjoyed the first Walking Dead season, and have since played a number of other Telltale titles, but once you realize that the actual hook of these games, narrative choice, is total bullshit, it's really hard to form much of an attachment to them. The first Walking Dead season at least still had a few perfunctory "puzzles", but the studio quickly abandoned any aspect of real interactivity. Thus they had no actual design hooks or gameplay exptertise anymore, and it's not at all hard to copy this game-type or to incorporate a "story design" that depends on the novelty of picking A/B/C/D decisions occasionally that have no major effect on anything. Until Dawn, for instance, did a much better job of fabricating a dynamic narrative, and tons of games now have meaningless dialogue response options on top of traditional gameplay.

In general, though, as might be obvious, I'm pretty disdainful of this "I made my character act rudely sometimes! This is my story!" thing that shouldn't pass as game design and shouldn't be a substitute for what a true dynamic narrative would entail. 
« Last Edit: September 22, 2018, 12:36:57 AM by MagicCow64 »

Offline oohhboy

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #910 on: September 22, 2018, 01:14:18 AM »
I had no idea they were in that much trouble let alone had 250 employees. That is a lot of people cranking out such relatively small games. All those IP gotta be expensive.

They promised to port Sam And Max season 1 to MacOS which never happened. BTTF was good. Walking Dead S1 killed it for me. If you're going to give me a choice, give me a choice.
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Offline nickmitch

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #911 on: September 22, 2018, 09:01:26 AM »
I wonder what will happen to the rights to the games. Will someone scoop them up, or will they revert to the IP holders?
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #912 on: October 04, 2018, 04:16:51 PM »
Telltale apparently got rid of the skeleton crew.

link
« Last Edit: October 04, 2018, 04:18:48 PM by pokepal148 »

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #913 on: October 04, 2018, 08:31:07 PM »
Telltale apparently got rid of the skeleton crew.

And Halloween was just a few weeks away. That's rough. Guess they went with trick instead of treat. Oh well. I don't think it's any skin off the skeleton's back.
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Offline Shaymin

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #914 on: October 04, 2018, 10:01:54 PM »
Does anyone know where to find retractable cacti? Asking for a friend.
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Offline oohhboy

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #915 on: October 05, 2018, 11:25:00 AM »
Telltale apparently got rid of the skeleton crew.

link

F
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Offline Stratos

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #916 on: October 05, 2018, 11:33:08 AM »
They may be getting laid off as they finish their parts of the last projects.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #917 on: February 17, 2019, 03:48:01 AM »
Razer is closing down their online store thingy,

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Offline oohhboy

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #918 on: February 17, 2019, 07:06:26 AM »
Razer needs to go away. They straight up make junk.
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Offline Shaymin

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #919 on: February 17, 2019, 08:33:45 AM »
Razer also made a cryptocurrency, so they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #920 on: February 19, 2019, 09:55:17 PM »
Did Razer make good stuff like 10 years ago or am I imagining things?


Offline nickmitch

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #922 on: June 13, 2020, 12:40:00 AM »
Looks like at&t is looking to sell WB's gaming devision.

I'm sorry, but I really need to see something that proves WB Interactive is worth four billion united states dollars.  They put out like 6 games in 2019 and 3 of them were ports??  Are they saying the rights to publishing games based on WB properties is worth $4B??
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018
« Reply #923 on: June 13, 2020, 02:02:40 AM »
AT&T is really cutting the fat because they are swimming in debt. I hope DC Comics survives.

WB Games only makes licensed games and Mortal Kombat.

Offline Shaymin

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Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-present
« Reply #924 on: June 13, 2020, 08:11:34 AM »
Mortal Kombat is probably the biggest multiplatform fighting game IP in the business, and the Batman games did REALLY well for WB as well (with another seemingly on the way). Add in the possibility of a bidding war - I'm sure Activision would like another 5-6 studios to pump out CODs - and $4bn may be realistic.
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