Also true and it is the previous malfeasant CEO who should be prosecuted.
I have long wondered about a “three strikes” policy for corporate officers, such as the CEO’s.
If a company or individual manager/CEO can be proven to have violated labour or health and safety laws severely and consistently enough no longer gets to hide behind the “limited liability” shields our governments so generously endow corporations with. For some reason, these are also the crimes, that even though in the extreme cases they do kill (multiple) people the ordinarily loudmouthed “law and order” politicians are uncharacteristically mum about.
But then if I had my way we’d start following the example and at least try to prosecute some of the ultra-rich banksters and other profiteers of the recent financial crisis.
Still, I’m all for zero tolerance, beefed up enforcement and three strikes policies as long as they’re applied to the fields of competition and labour law.
I honestly wonder sometimes how any video game companies, outside of the AAA studios, turn a profit.
At their peak, Telltale had around 350 employees, which means they had a payroll of at least $35 million per year. When other expenses are factored in, Telltale would have needed to sell more than 2 million units a year, assuming they could net $15 per unit sold (which I think is being generous given how many 50%+ sales there are on Steam).
Growing that big was never going to be sustainable, given that their most successful game sold something around that amount. That meant they needed to churn out multiple titles per year, which led to the crunch culture described in the other arictles linked here, which led to a drop in quality in the games, which led to the fan base eroding, which led to a drop in sales for each title, which led to having to release more titles per year, which led to even more of a crunch culture, etc., etc.
In the end, it’s just sad, not only for the people that lost their jobs, but because it felt like they were finally moving forward under the new management with some of the things they did in the second Batman season. It’s just too bad that the fan base had already been eroded so much by that time that there weren’t enough left for it to make a difference.
It´s sadly history repeating itself. To quick expansion has led to the end of several game producers, Atari & Ascaron to name some. But it´s not only the gaming industry, there is often a problem with small corporations getting a boost from a real success, and then going on, like this will go on forever, without proper thinking about what may happen, if the success was only luck.
So why would another company pay to finish Telltale’s game that has already been sold as season passes (which assuming Telltale is broke, the new company wouldn’t receive any money from) and would likely result in reduced new sales due to that? The best they could hope for would be the publicity would lead to new sales once finished and put back in the stores, or do most people not buy season passes? Would it really be economically viable for another studio to take on?
Everything is in the details. Sometimes it is easier to take over an existing license or IP rather than developing a new one or negotiating for a new license.
A larger developer/publisher can take a hit in one area if it means they gain in another. Ubisoft (as an example) might want to gain experience making better romances and character writing (something they are always getting criticized for) and gain an upper hand in hiring possible future writers…
I liked the idea and design behind TTG’s games but aside from a title or another none of them really stood out to me that much. I never really cared about the GoT franchise, same with Guardians of the Galaxy, Minecraft was meh at best and Batman was just decent. I played and cried during the WD Season 1 but the 2nd one didn’t grip me as much, never finished it either.
I also have to agree with Mara here, the games were advertised to have impactful choices but what they really meant with that was a few minor changes along the story. Some people, myself included, expected more. I know re-writing the story for every choice is hard and expensive but that’s what you get when you leave your advertisements vague - people going to take it however they like.
They should have stuck with their more unique titles like Wolf Among Us. I felt like they went after the current trends in the hopes of racking in some big money - ridin’ on the popularity while it lasts - and it backfired on them. A relatively small studio too ambitious for their own good, hiring way more than they could take in, clashing toes with companies who had way more money and power that they could ever hope to match.
Trendy IDs owned by AAA companies are dangerous beasts to tackle. If things go awry you better pray your lawyer is as good as theirs.
From a financial point, the answer is no. However, as @Eiwynn and @Muffy have stated, there can be other benefits for it.
I mean, the makers of No Man’s Sky got hit a flood, I believe, basically taking out equipment, etc. Well, Sony stepped in to give them funding to finish the game. Sony got some good PR out of this, as well as a year of exclusivity from it. Sony did recoup expenses from it (though the game was a hot mess upon release).
EA actually published the original Wasteland, so had rights to it. When inXile wanted to reboot the series, EA actually gave them a good deal for the IP. This is practically unheard of since EA tends to keep their greedy hands on everything, even if they won’t publish anything with that IP again.
An excellent article on the whole situation thus far.
The news only got worse. Telltale’s head of HR told employees that because of the company’s financial strain, employees would not get severance pay. Some remained stoic at the news, while others began to cry. One source tells The Verge that half of their monthly income was dedicated to rent alone. “I was living paycheck to paycheck.”
Employees were told that they’d have health care until the end of the month. “The way that it was said was that it was almost like an assurance,” the source says. “‘Don’t worry, you have health care until the end of the month.’ I just remember thinking, ‘Fuck, that’s only nine days. What the fuck am I gonna do after that happens?’”
“This is not how you treat employees, this is not how you treat people, and managers and execs out there can expect an official game dev union to be legal and formed within a few years,” one former employee says. “I have no doubt. This will go down as one of the straws that broke the camel’s back.”
Good news for those wanting the Walking Dead Final Season. From what the last paragraph of this article basically said, there’s a pretty good chance that Skybound might be hiring the development team that was already working on TWD to help finish wrapping it up.
Wait who’s Skybound?(i have a feeling that since i don’t know this company and probably never played any of there games, that it’s going to end up…glitchy)(not like the other walking dead seasons were better on that subject.)
They actually do have experience in mobile games seeing how they run TWD: Road to Survival and Skybound does belong to Robert Kirkman and he is the CEO of it, not to mention that he also owns the license and all TellTale’s The Walking Dead materials.
Skybound also had a part in creating TT’s TWD: Michonne story as well so obviously they know the style that TT had.
For some reason, these are also the crimes, that even though in the extreme cases they do kill (multiple) people the ordinarily loudmouthed “law and order” politicians are uncharacteristically mum about.
