It looks like even fewer of the Telltale Games employees whose jobs were temporarily spared from massive layoffs now remain at the company. Former narrative designer Rachel Noel shared the news in a series of messages on her personal Twitter account earlier today, having revealed two weeks ago that her small team was among the 25-employee "skeleton crew" retained to deliver on some of Telltale's outstanding business obligations.
Heeeeyyyy remember how there was going to be a skeleton crew staying on for a while and I was part of it? Nah, jk, we all just got laid off, too.October 4, 2018
I think there was some misunderstanding about my earlier message... There are still good people at the company. MY team is done.October 4, 2018
The skeleton team was reportedly kept on to finish work on the Netflix version of Minecraft: Story Mode, though the studio had also publicly announced it was looking for "potential partners" to help finish the last two episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season. The studio has yet to officially confirm this most recent set of layoffs, but it doesn't sound good for the future of those projects - or more importantly, the increasingly large pool of employees who are now left jobless.
At least one former Telltale Games employee is pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging that the sudden mass layoff and move toward closure in September were violations of federal employment regulations. The suit seeks to represent all Telltale employees affected by the shutdown, including the few who remained with the company. Reports that emerged of mismanagement at the upper levels of Telltale leadership in recent years were further vindicated in another Tweet by Noel.
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. 80-hour crunch weeks. Mismanagement of some of the industry’s top talent. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.October 4, 2018
That whole tweet is also a Blade Runner reference, in case you were worried. It's difficult to say just how much of Telltale Games is left at this point, but we'll keep you apprised of any more developments.
Telltale Games' future is in doubt, but at least we can still appreciate its contribution to the best adventure games.
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