Highlights
- Telltale Games has laid off employees working on The Wolf Among Us 2, adding to ongoing uncertainty surrounding the studio's major franchises.
- The sequel to The Wolf Among Us has faced numerous production issues, including a major delay to 2024.
- Telltale Games blamed "market conditions" for the layoffs, but fans may be disappointed by this news and the possible implications for the highly regarded franchise. Keep an eye out for more announcements.
Developer and Publisher Telltale Games has confirmed that it has laid off employees that were working on The Wolf Among Us 2. The developer that popularized a unique style of narrative-based gameplay has certainly had its ups and downs for several years now. While Telltale hit it big with its title based on The Walking Dead series and is responsible for multiple games on the list of the best choose your own adventure games of all time, it has continued to struggle to remain in business. This has translated to ongoing uncertainty surrounding its major franchises.
The studio nearly shut down permanently in 2018, leading to the cancelation of the sequel to The Wolf Among Us. Telltale was ultimately saved and revived the next entry in the story of Bigby Wolf and his fairytale world, but the game's production has been anything but a fairytale. Earlier this year, The Wolf Among Us 2 was hit with a big delay, being pushed back to 2024. Now, it seems things are getting worse for the production.
On Twitter, a freelance developer going by jjonahjonahson announced this week that he and others who were working on The Wolf Among Us 2 had been laid off by Telltale Games. He emphasized that a non-disclosure agreement prevented him from going into details, but he did state that "most of" the game's team had been let go back in September. Telltale has since confirmed these layoffs, but claims that no upcoming releases have been canceled at this time.
Telltale Games blamed "market conditions" for the layoffs, implying that it was a matter of funding. This is somewhat surprising as Telltale secured extra funding for future games earlier this year, and it successfully released all five episodes of The Expanse over the past several months. It's possible that this title did not sell as well as hoped which has caused Telltale to cut costs, but the developer isn't offering any explanation at this time.
The Wolf Among Us ranks very high on the list of the best Telltale Games, so this news and its possible implications may be disappointing for fans. While it has not officially been canceled, layoffs following a major delay do not bode well for this sequel. Gamers will want to keep an eye out for more announcements.
The Wolf Among Us 2 is currently set for a 2024 release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: VentureBeat
