Telltale
| |
| Telltale | |
| Type | Subsidiary of LCG Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Founded | June 2004 (Telltale, Inc.) August 28, 2019 (assignment to LCG) |
| Headquarters | Malibu, California, US |
| Key people | Kevin Bruner, founder Dan Connors, founder Troy Molander, founder |
| Industry | Video games |
| Products | Video games |
| Number of people | 250 (prior to 9/21/18) 25 (prior to assignment) |
| Website | http://www.telltale.com/ |
Telltale is a game development brand held by LCG Entertainment.
Formation
Telltale, Inc., doing business as Telltale Games, was incorporated in San Raphael, California in June 2004 by Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, and Troy Molander.
All had previously worked on Sam & Max: Freelance Police at LucasArts. Telltale was founded as a direct result of that game's cancellation, which occurred on March 3, 2004.
While at LucasArts, the Freelance Police team pitched the idea for cases of the game to be released episodically through digital distribution. They were told that wasn't sustainable, so when members of that team formed their own company, it used the digital episodic business model.
Creation of the Telltale Tool
A number of the Freelance Police team joined Telltale upon its creation, and they began development on an in-house engine. This engine, the Telltale Tool, which used the open-source LUA scripting language, was created to allow for easy adaptation for support of additional platforms and graphics technologies. This enabled it to be used in all of the games developed by the studio.
Using the Telltale Tool, the Telltale team began working on a game to test their engine, as well as the animation and storytelling that would be necessary when they began working on their own adventure games. This game was a poker game, which the team soon realized could be sold on its own. They polished it to commercial standards and named it Telltale Texas Hold'em. It was released on February 11, 2005.
Telltale Store
The original release of Telltale Texas Hold'em for Windows was primarily to test their digital storefront, which was named Telltale Now at the time. After 2007, it was simply known as the Telltale Store.
Telltale was revived in 2019, after the 2018 assignment process, by LCG Entertainment. The Telltale Store was not part of that revival, however, non-third-party games purchased on the Telltale Store while it was active can still be re-downloaded from the Telltale website.
Loss of game rights prior to studio expansion
A third Bone game, consisting of Eyes of the Storm and reportedly material from other Bone books, was announced in 2006. It was canceled in 2009, due to the fact that Telltale concentrated on the Sam & Max series and had lost the license to make Bone games by that point.
An episodic King's Quest game was announced to be in development by Telltale in 2011. It was canceled in 2013 as Telltale had lost the license to make a King's Quest game. The intellectual property owners of King's Quest, Activision, published a King's Quest game developed by The Odd Gentlemen. This episodic King's Quest, created without Telltale's involvement, was released between 2015 and 2016.
Telltale Publishing
Telltale's first foray as a co-developer was in 2011, with Hector: Badge of Carnage, a game in which they shared development duties with the primary developer Straandlooper.
In 2015, the Telltale Publishing label was formed. The first game to be published under the label was the Jackbox Party Pack, followed by Mr. Robot 1.51exfiltrati0n, 7 Days To Die, and RGX Showdown.
Mainstream success and expansion
In 2012, the release of The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series was met with critical acclaim and commercial success, winning over 80 Game of the Year awards and selling 8.5 million episodes totaling more than $40 million in sales. After this success, Telltale expanded from 110 employees to approximately 170.
In 2015, Lionsgate invested in Telltale to enable the two companies to co-develop original and existing intellectual properties for video games and television.
Majority studio closure and assignment
In 2018, all of Telltale's investors, including Lionsgate, pulled out of investment in the company. On September 21, 2018, Telltale announced a majority studio closure, laying off 250 employees with a staff of 25 staying on to fulfill contractual obligations to their board and to their partners. The game that was developed to fulfill the contractual obligations was Minecraft: Story Mode for Netflix. On November 27, 2018, after the game was released, most of the rest of the employees were laid off as well, and Telltale filed for assignment.
The Wolf Among Us 2, Game of Thrones: Season Two, Stranger Things, and Telltale's Super Show were canceled as a result of the majority studio closure. Beam Team Games also terminated their contract with Telltale Publishing when the release of Stranded Deep on consoles missed its release date and was pulled from digital storefronts.
The Walking Dead: The Final Season was completed by Skybound Games, which contracted some of the original team to finish the game from the Telltale offices.
Acquisition by LCG Entertainment
On August 28, 2019, LCG Entertainment announced that they had purchased Telltale and the rights to some of their games. The headquarters of LCG Entertainment was located in Malibu, CA, whereas the original Telltale offices were based in San Raphael, CA.
Telltale game rights owned by LCG Entertainment
With the acquisition of Telltale, LCG Entertainment acquired the rights to Batman: The Telltale Series, Batman: The Enemy Within, Hector: Badge of Carnage, Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, Puzzle Agent 2, and The Wolf Among Us.
The only Telltale Publishing title to which they had acquired the rights was RGX Showdown.
On June 26, 2020, LCG Entertainment acquired the rights to Tales of Monkey Island.
On November 7, 2020, LCG Entertainment acquired the rights to Telltale Texas Hold-em, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, and Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.
It subsequently lost the rights to RGX Showdown in May 2021, followed by Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People on June 1, 2023.
Telltale game rights owned by other companies
Not all of the Telltale titles are owned by LCG Entertainment. The rights to Telltale's The Walking Dead games were acquired by the creator of The Walking Dead, Skybound Entertainment. The games are now published by the company's video game subsidiary, Skybound Games. The original versions of the games are available alongside a remastered compilation, developed by Skybound Games, titled The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series.
The rights to Tales from the Borderlands were acquired by 2K, the company that holds the rights to the Borderlands franchise.
The rights to Telltale's Sam & Max games were acquired by Skunkape Games, a company formed by the franchise's creator, Steve Purcell, and other former Telltale staff members. Skunkape Games developed remastered versions of the three seasons of Sam & Max developed by Telltale. The original versions of the Sam & Max seasons are included with the remastered versions on Windows.
Game development partnerships
While Telltale had co-developed the final two episodes of the three-episode Hector: Badge of Carnage with Straandlooper in 2011, it wasn't until Telltale was reformed under LCG Entertainment in 2019 that co-development with outside studios became the norm.
On December 12, 2019, The Wolf Among Us 2 was put back into production. It was co-developed with AdHoc Studio, a studio formed by Telltale alumni.
The Expanse: A Telltale Series, a prequel to The Expanse television series, was released in five episodes from July 27, 2023 to September 21, 2023. Deck Nine co-developed the game with Telltale.
Games developed by Telltale (2004-2018)
Games developed under the Telltale brand by LCG Entertainment (2019-present)
| Title | System | Release | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Batman: The Telltale Series - Shadow Mode | PS4, Windows, Xbox One | 2019 | Shadow Mode is an optional filter with increased shadows. |
| Batman: The Enemy Within - Shadow Mode | PS4, Windows, Xbox One | 2019 | Shadow Mode is an optional filter with increased shadows. |
| The Expanse: A Telltale Series | PS4, Windows, Xbox One | 2023 | Five episode story in The Expanse series. Co-developed with Deck Nine. |
| The Wolf Among Us 2 | PS4, Windows, Xbox One | TBA | Episodic story in the Fables series. Co-developed with AdHoc Studio. |