310°

The Walking Dead studio Telltale hit with layoffs

Telltale Games, creators of episodic adventure games like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Batman: The Enemy Within, laid off a large number of its staff. The company will retain a small team of around 25.

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theverge.com
Thatguy-3102059d ago (Edited 2059d ago )

Not surprised. The branching narrative experience that they made were always smoke and mirrors since a lot of the story stayed the same no matter the choices one makes through the game. They kept picking up different established IP's without properly giving them quality work time. For the most part they were making cash grab mediocre content that they expected to sale solely based off on the name alone.

-Foxtrot2059d ago

Exactly

Shame. Maybe if they didn't rely so much on latching onto franchises which are popular thinking tthey'd make an easy buck on that alone while releasing game after game with the same old similar gameplay then maybe they could have evolved a little to survive.

What bugged me is they got an easy pass review wise, some of the things they'd call other games for they'd let go with TT games. The excuse is "well if it has an alright story"...AND? Triple A games like Bioshock or the Last of Us had fantastic stories and guess what? They had great gameplay and decent long replay value.

I remember Heavy Rain getting nitpicked a little in reviews yet something like the Walking Dead which did things worse then Heavy Rain ended up getting Game of the Year.

coolbeans2059d ago

"I remember Heavy Rain getting nitpicked a little in reviews yet something like the Walking Dead which did things worse then Heavy Rain ended up getting Game of the Year."

1.) Heavy Rain came out in 2011, TWD: Season 1 came out 2012 so there's different levels of competition.

2.) Heavy Rain still received a great critical score and many accolades.

3.) TWD certainly didn't do narrative worse than Heavy Rain.

P_Bomb2059d ago (Edited 2059d ago )

Sad. I’ve finished many of their games, as early as 2011 all the way up to Batman:Enemy Within this year. Will grab the last season of TWD when it’s complete and on sale. Their gradual implosion truly sounds like the enemy was within. No matter what choices they made, the end was gonna be the same https://www.theverge.com/20... :(

coolbeans2059d ago

Hmmm...

But I think it's fair to consider what they were going for by having a more "authored" narrative experience. The choices were focused on highlighting YOU, as the player-character, and testing your morals for a given situation instead of having huge consequences to the ending. I'm not saying they always established that well in their games, nor do I disagree with other parts of your comment, but I think there's a disregard for the intent of TT's design philosophy.

BioShockGX2059d ago

Stranger things and the wolf among us 2 are canceled. RIP.

monkey6022059d ago

Not just layoffs the studio seems to be confirmed to close down after the Walking Dead finishes up

thatguyhayat2059d ago

Yeah this is officially the studios been closed. Im seeing on twitter devs wishing them the best and such

P_Bomb2059d ago (Edited 2059d ago )

Yeah the studio is gone. They’re only keeping 25 peeps to fulfill their obligations to the board and business partners who I presume to mean Sony, MS, Nintendo, Windows. The season passes are paid for. Once they’re in the clear, last one to leave turns out the lights.

Felix_Argyle_Catbro2059d ago (Edited 2059d ago )

From over 300 employees to 25. Telltale will close down after finishing their current projects.

ps3vita4life2059d ago

Man that really sucks. As much as I feel that mistakes were made in their recent games, I can’t deny the important place they occupy in the games industry. I was really looking forward to Wolf among us 2. I hope everyone affected finds new jobs and is able to continue their style of storytelling in other games.

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100°

Report: Sexual Misconduct Investigation Conducted at EA, Suspects Named and What They Did Revealed

EA senior staff has been investigated for sexual misconduct involving female coworkers, and these said people have been named publicly.

isarai5h ago

Aye just call Phil, i mean he somehow made Bobby Kotick's scandal disappear and gave him a few million dollar high five on the way out.

XiNatsuDragnel2h ago(Edited 2h ago)

EA about to go down like Activision and then Phil saves the day saying.this is good for the industry and consolidation will help create competition. /s.

ravens5217m ago

What's up with all these horny creeps. You gon be horny, fine. Just not at work take care of that shit before you go in. Rub one out if you have to. Don't be a creep at all. ESPECIALLY at work. But don't be one AT ALL.

230°

Former Deviation Games Devs Have Formed A New Studio At PlayStation To Work On A New IP

Former Deviation Games developers have formed a new studio at Sony Interactive Entertainment in order to work on a brand new PlayStation IP.

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twistedvoxel.com
Tacoboto16h ago

Well that's an awesome and very surprising turnaround. Cheers to the new studio and what they'll build!

RaidenBlack13h ago

Likely to continue their FPS project

Cacabunga1h ago

It is not about money it is about talent.. get that talent in and they will take care of you and earn you that money

Eonjay1h ago

I had picked up on this before the Deviation shutdown was announced. It was pointed out that a senior manager of the team had joined PlayStation prior to the close. It was a little suspicious because from the outside in, it appeared had basically poached Deviation's talent.

Reading some of the other comments it seems this is understood to be the case.

In other news it would be wild if Sony winds up announcing a brand new internal studio.

isarai11h ago

That's..... confusing, so shut down but just reformed and same employer 🤔 sounds like pretty much what happened to Japan Studio basically just being rebranded as Asobi

ocelot0711h ago

It is odd one I don't know how business deals work or the law of that kind of stuff. But is it possible Sony reached out and said hey we want you apart of Sony but don't want to purchase you for what ever reason. How about use disband and we will open a studio and hire you guys type of thing. Is that even possible?

isarai10h ago

Maybe it's to void/bypass some contract? I have no clue

VersusDMC6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

I guess the deviation team fell apart and didn't deliver good progress on what they pitched (they overhyped themselves when the team was announced)so Sony shut them down. They regrouped with a new team and a new pitch so Sony is giving them another shot.

And this time they are keeping it quiet to keep pressure down on the team. So people aren't asking everyday what deviation(or whatever the new team is called) is doing.

Edit: Also Sony never owned them. They just ended their partnership with them. Deviation decided to close on their own.

outsider16246h ago

Good point. You know, i was thinking of Days Gone too. They pitch an idea to Sony for Days Gone 2 but Sony didnt like it do they scrapped the whole thing. Maybe if a good pitch came by...they'd reconsider it.

isarai5h ago

That makes a bit more sense

lodossrage4h ago

To be fair, Sony didn't shut them down. Devation was independent. Sony pulled funding on the project they were working on. As a result, they couldn't run so Devation decided to close on their own.

roboteye6h ago

If this was MS they'd be gone.

Goodguy016h ago

Maybe make a smaller game this time?

Elda5h ago

Good for them that they were able to work it out. Hopefully they're developing something interesting.

Rainbowcookie5h ago

I think Sony is thinking long term as a replacement for Call of Duty M$ edition.

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50°

INTERVIEW: Gray Zone Warfare's Success and Next Steps

Insider Gaming sat down with MADFINGER games to talk about Gray Zone Warfare's about the state of the game, its early success, and its future.

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insider-gaming.com