Four Reasons I Think Telltale Shut Down

I was really sad to hear about Telltale’s closure last week.  I’d always enjoyed their games and found them to be a great new approach to game design and a welcome relief from the traditional run-and-gun titles that are out there.  I have had some concerns about some of their recent titles, but I expected them to keep churning out their signature hybrid point-and-click and quick-time-event style games for years to come.  Boy was I wrong.  If you want a good run down about what went wrong at Telltale games, there are some good sources out there.   But, as an uninformed gamer who just really likes their titles, here’s what I think went wrong at Telltale games.

The Walking Dead Isn’t What It Once Was

When Telltale won Game of the Year for The Walking Dead back in 2012, the studio had done a great job of picking the perfect property to center a game around.  The Walking Dead, back then, was enormously popular even though it hadn’t hit its series high just yet.  Ratings for the last few years though have been steadily declining and Fear The Walking Dead never even took off.  With Rick Grimes’ imminent departure from the series, I’m not even sure how many more years the show has (television shows, like zombies, often die after losing their head).  By the time the third (great!) game rolled out, The Walking Dead wasn’t the juggernaut it had been and sales for the game lagged behind the previous titles (according to these guys, anyway).  The Walking Dead had been the backbone of the company and the franchise they could return to if other titles was less successful.  Without Walking Dead to rely on, moving forward may have looked as daunting as a freeway tunnel full of zombies.

I did enjoy getting some of Rocket’s backstory. Hey Disney! How about hiring Telltale to tell some Guardians stories?

They Picked the Wrong Heroes

I get why Telltale did the Batman games and the Guardians of the Galaxy game (though the former was more fun than the latter).  These were heroes with more stories to tell.  Batman has appeared in a lot of games, but no title had ever asked you to be Bruce Wayne.  The Guardians of the Galaxy have rarely appeared in games but the Telltale format allow the characters’ interpersonal dynamics to take center stage (rather than just asking you to blast things).  Yet, neither the second Batman game or the Guardians title was a strong hit for the studio.  Why not?  To my mind, they chose the wrong heroes to focus on.  Batman isn’t the most striking hero right now, Black Panther is.  Likewise, the Guardians also aren’t as interesting just now as, say, Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel might be.  There were a lot of stories Telltale could have told (and maybe will still be able to tell), but relying on traditional characters instead of these newer heroes may have been a misstep.

Okay, hooking up with Catwoman did feel kinda monumental even though Harvey’s gonna be mad either way.

They Didn’t Innovate

The Walking Dead did some amazing things in the original games.  Other than choosing who appeared in the game, though, the titles really didn’t change very much after the first game.  The puzzles were always pretty easy with only one solution that could be found easily.  Brief quicktime events with violent exchanges occur but usually have only one outcome allow for very little creativity.  Worst still, the games always allowed the illusion of choice that seemingly allow you to direct the story except that the choices always wind up leading to the some plot points.  You might be able to decide which location Batman will visit first, or which of Clementine’s friends will survive an encounter, but ultimately the story always ends the same way.  All of this made the games less fun to replay and less interesting over time.   What was super fun to play in 2012 just wasn’t as fun five years later.

Man do I hate this guy.

The Joker Did It

I really enjoyed Telltale’s first take on Batman, but I never found the time to invest beyond the first episode in the sequel.  Why not?  Well, the sequel’s first episode sets up an awesome new Riddler only to immediately [SPOILER: kill him off] and returns the same whiny, irritating Joker with the promise they you’ll be seeing a lot more of him.  And man, this Joker is just the worst.  He’s needy.  He’s cloying.  He acts inappropriately and apologizes for hurting feelings.  His biggest crime is that he’s sympathetic, which makes it him hard to square with other incarnations of the Joker who killed Lois Lane or brainwashed Robin or did horrible things to Commissioner Gordon.  This incarnation of the Joker is just the worst.  He’s not the guy you’re afraid of, he’s the guy you’re afraid will show up to your party.  As much as I enjoyed Telltale’s games, the thought of spending more time with him was too unpleasant.  He was easily my least favorite Joker, my least favorite character across any Telltale title and, as I’m thinking about it, one of my least favorite characters in any game.