It's a hard time to be a Telltale Games employee as the company has announced a 25% reduction in its overall workforce. The pioneers in decision-based gaming will see a comprehensive company restructuring that requires about 90 employee layoffs, effective immediately.
The recent event was designed to make the Telltale Games more competitive as a developer and publisher with an emphasis on high quality in the years ahead. It also means that the company will be able to make fewer games from this point forward, but hopefully at a better quality level than the titles have seen in the past.
"Our industry has shifted in tremendous ways over the past few years. The realities of the environment we face moving forward demand we evolve, as well, reorienting our organization with a focus on delivering fewer. better games with a smaller team," commented Telltale Games CEO Pete Hawley.
The company promises to use this restructuring time as an opportunity to move internal development over to more "proven technologies" that will help fast-track innovation in its core products as it works with new partners to create products for new audiences. Given that Telltale's game engine has been heavily criticized in the past, this move could be aimed at giving the company's games a new feel with the move to a new platform.
With Unity CEO John Riccitiello on the Telltale board of directors, some fans online are speculating that the story-driven titles will see a move over to the Unity engine in the coming years, but whether there is truth to this or not, the company's currently-announced upcoming games will all be unaffected by the transition. Hawley also announced that the company is making available a range of career assistance services that are set to help the now ex-Telltale employees find new jobs.
"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."
The hashtag #telltalejobs is currently seeing a lot of support on Twitter as companies and gamers alike come forward to help find jobs for those affected by the layoffs. Companies such as Bethesda, Obsidian, Bungie, and Gearbox Software have come forward and posted links to their company's available positions in the past few hours, providing ex-Telltale staff with a few options.
Unfortunately, layoffs are a very real part of every industry and it seems that the gaming community suffers their impact a little too often. The talented individuals that no longer work at Telltale Games might see some tough times ahead, but we can only hope that they are able to find some well-deserved employment with another developer very soon.