Telltale Games closing down, second GAME OF THRONES video game series (and others) cancelled

In surprising news, Telltale Games, the studio behind the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and Wolf Among Us adventure game series (among others), is closing for good.

Telltale was founded in 2004 by ex-staff from LucasArts, the formidable studio that in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s had created some of the greatest video games ever made, from Monkey Island 2 through TIE Fighter to Grim Fandango. The studio's goal was to bring back the adventure game (a narrative-focused game where puzzle-solving and conversation is key to completing the game, rather than combat and explosions) from the abyss, overcoming issues with long development times by breaking their games into episodic "seasons" with each 2-4 hour "episode" released a few weeks or a couple of months apart. Their early games were patchy, with Sam and Max Save the World (2006) and Tales of Monkey Island (2009) - both direct sequels to LucasArts games - being moderately successful but games such as Back to the Future (2010) and Jurassic Park (2011) having a much more mixed reaction.

The studio's fortunes had a massive boost with the release of the first season of The Walking Dead in 2012. A massive critical and commercial success, selling over 28 million copies of the five episodes, The Walking Dead was praised for its focus on characterisation and storytelling over violence, especially given its zombie apocalypse setting. Telltale underwent a major expansion and its next game, The Wolf Among Us, was even more critically praised, although it did not sell as well.

However, internal dissent at the studio soon saw much of the creative team behind The Walking Dead leave and set up a rival adventure game studio, Campo Santo. Their debut game, Firewatch (2016), was an even bigger critical success than The Walking Dead and their sales were extremely strong.

Telltale released what can only be called a glut of games over the next few years: The Walking Dead - Season 2 (2013), Tales from the Borderlands (2014), Game of Thrones: The Adventure Game (2014), two seasons of Minecraft: Story Mode (2015), two seasons of Batman (2016) and Guardians of the Galaxy (2017). Although some of these had a strong critical reception, sales were somewhat disappointing for all of these games bar the Minecraft adventure titles. In early 2017 four of the studio's design leads quit simultaneously, creating a leadership vacuum that was never filled.

The studio's commitment to releasing a lot of product also alienated gamers. First, the sheer quantity of material released saw many gamers giving up trying to follow it all. In addition, the studio insisted on using the same, increasingly decrepit game engine for all of their titles. The engine was looking a bit creaky already when The Walking Dead was released, but the strong writing and voice acting overcame the problem. However, with the transition to the X-Box One/PlayStation 4 generation, the fact that the games weren't looking any better than on the X-Box 360 or PlayStation 3 irritated a lot of fans.

The release schedule also caused enormous problems in the studio. Most video game studios develop games over a period of 2-4 years, entering a period known as "crunch" in the final 3-6 months leading up to release where a lot of overtime is necessary to get the game out of the door. With most studios, the release of the game allows for a rest-and-regrouping period of at least a few weeks before work has to begin on the next title in earnest. Telltale's release schedule meant this was not possible and the studio existed in a state of "permanent crunch", with no downtime for developers to regroup before making the next game, leading to a spate of departures.

Telltale's closure means that several announced titles have been cancelled. These include second seasons of The Wolf Among Us and Game of Thrones and an ambitious Stranger Things tie-in and co-production with Netflix. What is unclear is the status of The Walking Dead: The Final Season. The first episode was released a few weeks ago, a second episode is due next week and several more beyond that. A wrapping-up crew are still working at Telltale for the next couple of months, but it is unclear if they plan to finish the season or not.

The closure of a video game studio with the resulting hundreds of job losses is always sad news, especially one that had done much to resurrect a beloved, half-vanished genre. However, the company's toxic work environment and the pressure to keep delivering quantity of content over quality appears to have helped run it into the ground. The good news is that many other companies are already snapping up Telltale developers via a Twitter campaign, and with Valve (and their formidable financial resources) recently buying Campo Santo, one wonders if they could have plans for expansion there.

GAME OF THRONES: IRON FROM ICE gets a release date

The first episode in Telltale's Game of Thrones adventure series, Iron From Ice, now has a release date.

The episode will drop on 2 December - that's next Tuesday - for PC, Mac and American PS4s. X-Box 360, XB1 and other PS4 markets will follow on 3 December. The iOS release will be on 4 December, whilst PS3 owners have to wait until 9 December for unknown reasons. Android will follow up later in the month.

The game series will consist of six episodes in total. The release dates for the remaining episodes is unknown, but it's been rumoured that the game series should wind up in time for Season 5 of Game of Thrones starting on TV, likely in the first week or so of April. That would make for a pretty tight turn-around for Telltale, who sometimes go 2-3 months between episodes on their other games, but possible if they've pre-planned this series a bit more thoroughly than some of their others.

Telltale detail their new GAME OF THRONES adventure game

Telltale Games have released the first hard info on their upcoming Game of Thrones adventure game series.

The first episode will be called Iron From Ice and will launch before the end of this year. There will be six episodes in total. Release dates have not been confirmed, but the game will take place simultaneously alongside the events of Season 4, beginning near the end of Season 3 and concluding around the time Season 5 starts. This may indicate a plan to have all six episodes out and done by the time Season 5 starts airing in late March or early April 2015.

The game will revolve around House Forrester, a relatively minor house based in the North. The Forresters are vassals of House Glover of Deepwood Motte, themselves vassals of the Starks. Their seat is Ironrath, located in the ironwood. This is a small part of the wolfswood, noted for its extremely tough trees which make for excellent houses and ships. The Forrester words are also "Iron From Ice".

The Forresters are briefly mentioned in A Dance with Dragons. However, as the Telltale game is based on the TV canon rather than the novels, none of this information should be taken as being official for the books.

In terms of gameplay, the game will use five different POV characters, either members of the Forrester family or their servants. These characters will be located in both Westeros and Essos, and the locations they visit will range from Ironrath to the Wall and King's Landing. The storyline would appear to revolve around both the Forresters' involvement in the War of the Five Kings (presumably in which they support Robb Stark) and their rivalry with House Whitehill.

The game series will be available on PC, X-Box 360, X-Box One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

Telltale is planning multiple GAME OF THRONES games

Following the news about Telltale making an official Game of Thrones title over the weekend, HBO has confirmed that this deal is multi-year and will encompass several 'seasons' of gaming, in the same way that Telltale's Walking Dead game is imminently returning with a new 'season' of episodes.

The multi-year, multi-title partnership between Telltale and HBO Global Licensing is targeted to premiere digitally in 2014 with an episodic game series for home consoles, PC/Mac, and mobile devices. Specific platform details are yet to be announced.

The first part of the game is expected to be released in mid-to-late 2014.

GAME OF THRONES adventure game confirmed, FALLOUT 4 marketing exposed as a hoax

Following previous rumours, Telltale Games have confirmed that they will be releasing a Game of Thrones episodic adventure game in 2014.

Telltale, formed out of the collapse of LucasArts's adventure game division in the early 2000s, are the critically-acclaimed creators of Tales of Monkey Island, The Walking Dead (the best piece of media set in that universe to date) and their current ongoing release, The Wolf Among Us, as well as three well-received Sam and Max games. Their other games, of varying quality, include titles set in the Law and Order, CSI, Wallace and Gromit, Jurassic Park and Back to the Future franchises. Telltale have also announced another new game, Tales from the Borderlands, set in the Borderlands video game universe.

This is promising news. With both The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, Telltale have gained a reputation for well-written stories with exciting twists and unusually good characterisation. These are all things that will apply well to the Game of Thrones setting. No word on story or character yet, although Telltale usually prefer to use new characters in a setting where there is ongoing material. They are hoping to use some of the TV voice cast, so some locations and characters may overlap, but I suspect this will be mostly a new story.

"There are sex scenes on the show?" - Kevin Bruner, Telltale Games

According to Telltale there will be some sword-swinging and action, but this will not make up a lot of the gameplay. They were coyer on whether the show's sex scenes would make the translation to gaming.

Unfortunately, the promising ARG for Fallout 4 has been exposed as a hoax. Whilst Bethesda are still widely believed to be working on the game, it does not look like any formal announcement is imminent. Bethesda have faced some criticism from fans for not exposing the story as a hoax when it first appeared a month ago.