To much fanfare and surprise, The Wolf Among Us 2 was announced at The Game Awards 2019, shocking fans who presumed Telltale Games had shutdown and filed for bankruptcy long ago. It's easy to miss that Telltale Games is back from the dead, but the situation is far more nuanced. And fans should probably pay close attention to the events that transpired when Telltale Games shutdown, as well as the reality of its supposed rebirth, which present both positive and negative signs for the future of The Wolf Among Us 2. However, overall, there is hope.
The story of Telltale Games is perhaps the classic tale of a small business that grew too fast, and could not expand fast enough to keep up with the work load, causing it to collapse under its own weight. In the beginning, it was a small developer which produced point and click adventure games for small, yet enthusiastic audiences. When Telltale Games finally obtained its big break in scoring the Walking Dead license in 2012, it quickly nabbed other big-name licensing deals to develop Minecraft, Batman, Game of Thrones, Borderlands, and Guardians of the Galaxy themed games, and much more.
However, it proved to be more than the company could chew for a studio of its size, leaving employees overwhelmed with unrealistic deadlines to meet and lowered morale. In early 2017, its CEO stepped down, and outside management was brought in to try and fix Telltale Games' internal issues, which led to laying off a quarter of Telltale Games' employees near the end of 2017. The new business model was to focus on quality over quantity, with less games being produced, but at higher quality.
However, it may have been too little and too late, as projects already slated for release were nowhere near complete and investors had cut off their funding with the company as a result. In October, 2018, Telltale Games filed for bankruptcy, with two remaining episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season still unfinished. Telltale Games was able to work out a deal with another company, Skybound Games, to finish the remaining two episodes using the original team of developers.
After much negotiations, LCG Entertainment acquired many of Telltale Games' assets in August of 2019, utilizing "Telltale Games" as its trade name. In simple terms, that really means that Telltale Games more or less does not actually exist as an individual company, but is just the name that LCG Entertainment will use and be known as when developing certain projects. In terms of an analogy, a trade name can be understood similarly to the way an author may wish to write a book under a different alias name.
None of the major partners, parties, and financial contributors in LCG Entertainment's Telltale Games have worked with the original Telltale Games and its previous projects, including The Wolf Among Us. Fans certainly hope that The Wolf Among Us 2 will reignite the magic that made the original's dark humor and mature themes a hit in recasting classic characters from childhood fables, such as Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf.
Make no mistake, The Wolf Among Us had perhaps the most enthusiastic cult-like following among adventure gamers, in comparison to all of Telltale's other games, even if its sales were not as strong as its The Walking Dead series. Its blend of mythical characters and mature themes took a liking to many fans, even if they were familiar with Bill Willingham's comic book series which it was based off of. At least some caution is advised as the new project, The Wolf Among Us 2, heads forward, but overreactions should be avoided at this point in time.
While many of the former staff of Telltale Games have been brought on by LCG Entertainment to help develop new games, they have been hired as freelance employees. However, they have been open to the possibility of hiring them on as full time employees in the future, depending on various factors. It is unclear what these factors may be, but we can imagine it would typically include the usual variables: job performance among individuals, the overall success of the company and the income its products generate, future business expansion, and, of course, avoiding growth that takes place too quickly.
There are also some ethical dilemmas currently, as some fans and individuals in the gaming industry have taken to social media calling to boycott all future games from LCG Entertainment, and have even called for the company to pay off the debts accrued by former Telltale Games' leadership. However, it is important to consider the fact that we do not know exactly how big LCG Entertainment is, nor what its budget consists of. Nor do we know how much Telltale Games' assets and name was acquired for. Therefore, it is hard to speculate whether LCG Entertainment would even have such a budget to address these types of issues.
Much top talent from Telltale Games' original studio has already left and taken jobs elsewhere, including The Walking Dead's writer, Mary Kenney, who took a job with Insomniac Games. However, there is one sign that may compensate for this and appears very promising: many of Telltale Games' previous developers have banded together and created their own studio, AdHoc Studio, to continue work on story-driven adventure games. And for those with a keen eye, Adhoc Studios is listed at the end of The Wolf Among Us 2 trailer, suggesting that LCG Entertainment is partnering with them to some degree and giving them a role in the development of this game.
It is also a promising sign that the new leadership from within LCG Entertainment have been willing to outwardly acknowledge mistakes in management made by the previous company of Telltale Games. Hopefully, the company learns from those mistakes going forward. However, addressing the issues is definitely a promising sign in itself and demonstrates maturity.
It is also a positive note that The Wolf Among Us 2 was the first game being shown off by LCG Entertainment's Telltale Games, rather than an IP with a bigger name to mainstream gamers. This should please fans of The Wolf Among Us very much, as it potentially demonstrates LCG Entertainment's high confidence in the series to cement a lasting first impression of what its company will offer going forward. Certainly, LCG Entertainment knew this would reflect on its team of developers and set a positive trajectory for future game releases from their company, as it could have easily chose another bigger-name IP to establish a foothold and making a lasting first impression.
Unfortunately, it appears that The Wolf Among Us 2 will not even release next year. However, on a positive note, this also demonstrates a level of composed patience that seemingly contrasts an opposite shade of the old company, which became infamous for promising idealistic release dates that were impossible to meet, resulting in a crunch-time work culture. While fans will need to be patient, it at least reflects a promising sign that LCG Entertainment is vying for long term success and is hopefully aiming for high quality.
LCG Entertainment is a brand new company that was seemingly established precisely in order to continue the work of Telltale Games' storytelling. It is composed of an array of investors and advisers of gaming industry experts, including Chris Kingsley, who co-owns one of the largest independent development studios in Europe. Tobias Sjögren, another partner with LCG Entertainment, happens to be the CEO of White Wolf Entertainment, which created the World of Darkness. For those unfamiliar with that name, they may be more familiar with Vampire: The Masquerade, which takes place in the same universe and shares its mythos.
While there is certainly room for skepticism in light of Telltale Games' demise and how it was run previously, this new venture should be viewed as a fresh start and a new open door for opportunity among those resuming The Wolf Among Us series. Given that the biggest problems with Telltale Games' in the past were its mismanagement, and not its developers, perhaps there is actually more reason to give LCG Entertainment a chance and be hopeful of what is to come in The Wolf Among Us 2.
With former Telltale developers, Adhoc Studios, now working on The Wolf Among Us 2, with direction from new leadership in LCG Entertainment, this may actually be the solution for past failures that transpired, rather than a hindrance. At the very least, on the surface, there is no apparent reason to distrust LCG Entertainment yet, and the current development of The Wolf Among Us 2 should be viewed with open minds as a possible opportunity to fix old mistakes and produce a stellar game.
The Wolf Among Us 2 is currently in development.