This really sucks, but such is life in the video game industry. You just never know what is going to happen, and today's successful company is tomorrow's shuttered warehouse. Even Telltale, a company with unbelievably popular properties like Batman, Game of Friggin Thrones, Back to the Future and The Walking Dead isn't immune, and last week, we saw just how volatile the industry can be. Telltale closed their doors, leaving The Walking Dead and other properties unfinished, and some 250 employees without jobs.
Worst of all, there's no severance for the 250 employees that were let go, and by all reports, they got the announcement during a meeting and were then given 30 minutes to get out of the building. As an extra kick in the balls, some employees reportedly were working as late as 3 AM the night before as they struggled to hit unreasonable deadlines. Here are a few tweets from employees just days/hours after attending the meeting that broke the news to them.
“None of my sleepless nights or long hours on weekends trying to ship a game on time got me severance today,” tweeted (former) Telltale character artist Brandon Cebenka. “Don’t work overtime unless you’re paid for it, y’all. Protect your health. Companies don’t care about you.”
“All I want right now is to rest for a couple of days. But since we got no severance and our insurance expires at the end of the month, I don’t have that luxury.”
Now, there is news that some financial backers have appeared, potentially offering enough cash to finish the Walking Dead series, but there has been no mention of how many, if any, employees would be brought back to finish the games. Here is the official release from Telltale regarding the whole crappy situation.
Here at DLH.net, we think this sucks, hard. Here's hoping that these people find jobs, and fast. Often, we get so caught up in the hype of upcoming games, or hate for games that underwhelm or don't live up to our personal expectations, that we forget there are real people with families and lives behind our favorite games. For how all-consuming entertainment in can be, especially here in the States, it would do us all some good to keep in mind that there are humans behind the games that bring us so much joy.
