The well-known team of Telltale Games (who produced story-driven, episodic games) is getting a revival as a new company. Polygon has reported that Telltale Games will live again after the assets were purchased by a company called “LCG Entertainment” … some of the back-catalog will be sold and new games will be worked on with a few of the Telltale-associated properties.
The revival of Telltale will be run by Jamie Ottilie, Founder and CEO of Galaxy Pest Control (Duck Dynasty and Power Rangers), and Brian Waddle, previously ran Sales and Marketing for the game engine “Havok.” Ottilie has said “some workers of the original Telltale Games will be offered freelance roles, with full-time positions possible in the future.”
Jamie Ottilie stares that the new business will have a back-catalog of rights to licensed properties such as The Wolf Among Us and Batman as well as previous Telltale Games such as Puzzle Agent. Other expired licenses were being looked at. It is possible to pick up where some stories left off as some games left off with Ottilie saying, “We’re still evaluating, but we definitely want to continue some of the stories.”
In the interview with Polygon, Ottilie added, “This is a viable business that went away due to market conditions and some scale choices [Telltale’s previous management] made. I like games that tell stories and I think our industry should have a company that specializes in narrative-driven games.”
“We’re going to stay small over the next six months and we will work for more of a distributed development pipeline than Telltale was known for. We’ll focus on tools, technology, and design in-house. Some things like animation and motion capture will be done with the right partnerships externally.”
“We will probably keep the concept of episodes but with different pacing. This is a different world, from a media consumption standpoint. We need to look at how people like to entertain themselves. I like the idea of binge watching.”
“[The original Telltale Games] brought me some of my favorite stories to play and they did an amazing job building a company. It’s unfortunate the way it ended. Certainly we’re working very hard not to make similar mistakes.”
Telltale Games found its success with the first season of The Walking Dead Game in 2012. From then, they have obtained the rights to develop games from major companies from DC Comics to even Marvel Comics. Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy, Borderlands, Game of Thrones, and even the popular game of Minecraft got the Telltale treatment with story-driven games.
Unfortunately, last year, the developers faced a major studio closure due to a failure in financing. The previous company’s executives are currently facing a class-action lawsuit regarding the breaking of labor laws. With the closure, the company was not able to finish The Walking Dead’s final season this cutting it short and ending after episode two. Skybound, the owners of The Walking Dead franchise, took it upon themselves to finish the project with the help of some of the previous Telltale employees.
So, what do you think of this next venture? Comment with your thoughts and concerns! As always, stay tuned to GamingLyfe for more gaming news.
