More layoffs in the gaming industry: Telltale Games

Following consistent layoffs at developer studios across the gaming industry and on the wings of a SAG-AFTRA strike with game studios, Telltale Games has reportedly laid off a significant amount of its workforce.

Jonah Huang, a Telltale Games Cinematic Artist tweeted about the layoffs saying that “Telltale laid most of us off in early September.” Huang also noted that he was under NDA and could not say more other than “Games industry, we must UNIONIZE.”

Telltale Games has since responded with a comment spread to multiple outlets and Geoff Keighley shared:
"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. " – Telltale

In 2018 Telltale closed the studio after mass layoffs and was bought and put under new management in 2019. At The Game Awards in 2019, The Wolf Among Us 2 was revealed, a highly anticipated sequel to The Wolf Among Us. Telltale spent years after the first game bouncing around making different narrative based games around The Walking Dead, Jurassic Park, Guardians of the Galaxy, Borderlands, Batman, and most recently in 2023, The Expanse.

While The Wolf Among Us 2 is still in production and aiming for a release in 2024 we hope the developers laid off find new jobs and perhaps unionize. These mass layoffs amidst a year of record sales and success for many studios dropping highly anticipated games isn’t allowing everyone to celebrate in the midst of their hard work.

What do you think about the mass layoffs in the games industry? Is Telltale Games aiming for a certain collapse again? I hope not. Let me know what you think down in the comments below.