Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
1–10 of 197 posts
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#2This sounds very similar to the layoffs that happened with ML and computer vision staff at Shutterstock. I heard it was a super unprofessional sudden thing, poor severance, no continuation of benefits, happening to teams that just had been praised for being high performers for short term business critical product deployments.
It’s not a gaming industry thing, and no job segments are safe from this kind of thing. Just a reminder to insist on a clearly stated severance package when you join, and walk away if an employer won’t offer that to you, no matter what you think about your personal leverage in the situation or your seniority or anything else. When it comes to generous severance that is stated in the employment agreement, do not take no for an answer.
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#3I wonder how much the closure was financial mismanagement vs their business model simply catching up to them.
TTG shtick was essentially “emotional abuse simulators” all their games had one trick get you attached to characters and see them die with very little actual player control over it.
They were one trick pony and the novelty wore off rather quickly.
Their games also were based on expensive franchises and they often offered the first chapter for free in order to hook people in.
They also never really developed their formula further the games didn’t became more interactive the same quick time events over and over that never really changed the overall story more than which one of these two will die and or betray you later.
I’m actually surprised that they lasted this long given how expensive it is to develop these games even if they weren’t technically impressive recording hours and hours of voice acting is much more expensive than shiny coding shaders.
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#4The point of severance is to give ex-employees a reason not to sue.
However there is left point in protecting from lawsuits when there will be nothing left that can be sued.
However I suspect that not paying out owed PTO may be a different story...
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#5I might be misreading/misinterpreting..what was the reason for the closure? The article mentions it was financial but it didn’t seem absolute.
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#6This sounds very similar to the layoffs that happened with ML and computer vision staff at Shutterstock. I heard it was a super unprofessional sudden thing, poor severance, no continuation of benefits, happening to teams that just had been praised for being high performers for short term business critical product deployments. It’s not a gaming industry thing, and no job segments are safe from this kind of thing. Just…
If the company burns through all its cash and craters in a financial implosion of bankruptcy and debt like this it's unlikely to matter whether you had a generous severance plan called out in your employment agreement. The best you could hope to do is get in line with the other unsecured creditors for your share of the tiny leavings left after the Aeron chairs are sold at auction.
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#7I might be misreading/misinterpreting..what was the reason for the closure? The article mentions it was financial but it didn’t seem absolute.
Once the novelty wore off people stopped buying their games because they were all the same and hardly a game.
So expensive licensing rights, expensive development due to 100’a of hours of voice acting and giving the first chapter for free to hook people in I think resulted in a very poor business model in the long run.
If you played one TTG game you played them all they never really developed their formula so it really bacame stale.
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#8The point of severance is to give ex-employees a reason not to sue. However there is left point in protecting from lawsuits when there will be nothing left that can be sued. However I suspect that not paying out owed PTO may be a different story...
It's really interesting to read this perspective on what severance is in the US, because in my country it definitely is just a right everyone has so that they can land on their feet.
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#9Is severance normal at a startup or a game studio? I would think first priority would be contractual obligations (payroll, contractual severance, vendors, etc.) and then only then severance.
Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance
#10Is severance normal at a startup or a game studio? I would think first priority would be contractual obligations (payroll, contractual severance, vendors, etc.) and then only then severance.
I don't think severance is normal or expected of any business teetering on insolvency.