Telltale Games lays off nearly a quarter of its staff

Developer Telltale Games, best known for episodic story-driven games like The Walking Dead and Tales from the Borderlands, announced today that roughly 25 percent of its workforce has been laid off. 

As Gamesindustry reports, 90 people were affected by the wave of layoffs. Before today, the studio was nearly 400 strong. Telltale says the layoffs will not affect any of its ongoing games. However, moving forward they plan to make "fewer, better games with a smaller team."

"I'd like to express our respect for all the contributions that these incredibly talented artists, storytellers and more have made to this company, and that this decision is in no way a reflection on the quality or dedication of their work," said Telltale CEO Pete Hawley. "We have made available our full career assistance services to help our affected colleagues and friends—and their families—navigate this difficult transition as quickly as possible."

Telltale's downsize comes on the heels of two other, more dramatic shifts in the indie scene. In the past week, Gigantic developer Motiga and Torchlight developer Runic Games were both closed at the hand of their shared publisher, Perfect World. 

Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.

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