Telltale Games Resurrected

The award-winning studio Telltale Games, which had to close in September, last year due to bankruptcy, will be resurrected. For the time being, however, it will only be a new-old front, as no previous employees of the developer are connected with the project. Jamie Ottilie and Brian Waddle, two men behind LCG Entertainment, which bought rights to the name "Telltale" from the creditors of the original team, as well as most of its titles and IPs, are responsible for bringing the studio back to life. Interestingly, the funds for the purpose were provided by a publisher called Athlon Games, belonging to the Chinese holding Leyou, operating in the free-to-play gaming industry. Industry veterans such as Chris Kingsley (Rebellion), Lyle Hall (Heavy Iron Studios) and Tobias Sjögren (formerly Starbreeze) are also involved.

The managers of the resurrected Telltale have no experience in adventure games. Jamie Ottilie owned a mobile studio called Galaxy Pest Control, which released titles based on Duck Dynasty and Power Rangers television licences. Brian Waddle was responsible for sales and marketing for the Havoc engine manufacturer and the Virtuos outsourcing company. The new studio will be located in Malibu, California. In the first phase of activities of the new studio, which is to last six months, the owners will focus on reintroducing games from the developer's catalogue, which disappeared from stores a few months ago, as well as developing their own technologies and completing orders from third-parties.

The new Telltale Games does not exclude the possibility of developing new installment of series such as The Wolf Among Us.

Ottilie confirmed in coversation with Polygon that in addition to the original Telltale series, such as Puzzle Agent, his company also bought the rights to The Wolf Among Us and Batman: The Telltale Series. There is therefore a possibility that we will see direct continuations of the stories presented in them. Some of the licenses have already expired (most likely Minecraft, Game of Thrones and Guardians of the Galaxy), but the company is to look for a possibility to renew them. It is worth noting that The Walking Dead franchise remains beyond the reach of Telltale, because the current owner of the rights is Skybound Games studio.

Ottilie also made it clear that he had no intention of making the same mistakes as the Telltale's original board of directors, which led to the studio's demise. He also believes in adventure games, of which he is a big fan, and in the fact that in the industry there is still a place for a developer specializing in new titles of this genre. Interestingly, he also referred to the episodic formula of the games, for which Telltale was known. He said he would like to keep it, but plans to modify it in new titles, adapting it to today's expectations of consumers accustomed to Netflix binge-watch.

However, whoever prepares new Telltale projects, remains unknown for the time being. It is unlikely that the studio owners will be able to attract back the greatest talents associated with the original team. Ottilie mentioned that he would offer some of them a position as freelancers with the possibility of permanent employment in the "indefinite future". However, it is hard to believe that many of them have decided to accept the "generous" offer, considering the problems caused to them by their previous employer and the fact that a significant part of them have already found employment in large developer studios or have decided to start acting on their own. This will certainly have an impact on the quality of the potential titles released by the new Telltale, whose launch is still very far away.

Original Telltale Games was launched in 2004.

The reasons for its end were poor management, unnecessary expenses, too many active projects, and an aging and troublesome graphic engine, which unnecessarily prolonged the time of work on games and increased the costs.

1. Telltale Games official homeage
2. Athlon Games official homepage