Discontinued after Episode 2?

[Erkawest]

Btw, what happens to all the other Telltales Games now on PSN? Will they get discontinued or does the money go to Sony when buying them? Just thinking about if people should buy the games if they planned to platinum them in the future

[ThatMuttGuy]

19 minutes ago, rolltideroll157 said:

Seriously I could care less if they lost their jobs especially since we are apparently not getting refunds which is complete bullshit. You don't all of sudden shut down so the CEO had to know this was coming and should have never been able to have this game buyable or at least have a warning that this was possible. Something is very fishy/illegal going on here.

Calm down son, it's not the end of the world. Just contact Sony and fight for your rightful refund. No need to go aggro in this thread. .

 

Edited September 24, 2018 by ThatMuttGuy
.

[azariaspice]

Really sad, I've enjoyed a lot of Telltale Games' titles.  Sad that this may not ever be completed.  These episodic games aren't my favorite structure and seeing this happen I'm less of a fan, especially since this is the only company I bought episodic titles for to begin with.  Here's hoping they end up finish off this game for those of you that bought it!

[rolltideroll157]

20 minutes ago, ThatMuttGuy said:

Calm down son, it's not the end of the world. Just contact Sony and fight for your rightful refund. No need to go aggro in this thread. .

 

Nothing i said is aggressive lmao if I had used all caps then this would make sense. I'm simply stating facts.

[Gisquared09]

This was the first time I ever bought a season pass. Guess I'm never doing that again. 

[GoDBoss173]

31 minutes ago, rolltideroll157 said:

Seriously I could care less if they lost their jobs especially since we are apparently not getting refunds which is complete bullshit. You don't all of sudden shut down so the CEO had to know this was coming and should have never been able to have this game buyable or at least have a warning that this was possible. Something is very fishy/illegal going on here.

I would even say it was the intention of the company/CEO to deduct some more money before going to hell.

They knew the company wont see the end of the year and that they wont publish all four episodes.

The first episode was published only a few weeks ago and now the sudden death?Hmmm its kinda strange.

[rolltideroll157]

3 minutes ago, GoDBoss173 said:

I would even say it was the intention of the company/CEO to deduct some more money before going to hell.

They knew the company wont see the end of the year and that they wont publish all four episodes.

The first episode was published only a few weeks ago and now the sudden death?Hmmm its kinda strange.

Exactly. This game should never have been available to purchase because I'm sure the CEO at least knew this company was going under before the release of this game.

[Sten_dardo]

1 hour ago, rolltideroll157 said:

Exactly. This game should never have been available to purchase because I'm sure the CEO at least knew this company was going under before the release of this game.

Yes, my thoughts exactly.

Also, TellTale was present at this year’s ComicCon, right? To promote their game. That can’t have been cheap, so why even bother in this digital age where you can get the message out, and advertise, in much cheaper ways?

 

 

[Paleblood]

Another really sad thing almost nobody talks about is that there are people who started as early as last week at Telltale.

One of them had to relocate, only to be fired without a reason and was given 30 minutes to leave the building.

 

The level of managerial incompetence is staggering to me. I hope the afflicted parties sue Telltale's fucking ass to the ground, so they can at least get compensation for the thremendous cost that is recolating to the bay area. Not even to mention that seemingly nobody got severance pay.

So how do they pay their next bill you might ask? Well, they don't know themselves yet so...

 

J

[TheSleepyBeauty]

Well this just fucks up my hope for A Wolf Among Us season 2. 

[Paleblood]

7 hours ago, Sergen said:

 

Funny thing about the fact that people want refunds for stuff, when Gazillion was shutting down Marvel Heroes Omega and their company was having lay-offs, former devs of the game were saying shit like "when you ask for refunds, remember that we didn't get paid after being laid off". The thing is, people pay and trust your product to fully release and people invested in a full story for The Final Season. I feel sorry for the people who did pay full price who might not get a refund if Telltale doesn't even have the money for the refunds. I just won't add to the generic shit saying "Omg I'm so sorry they lost their jobs", because at the end of the day it doesn't help. But creating an uproar on Twitter against them for not refunding fans of the game likely will get something to happen in the end. 

 

Sometimes compassion is worth more than 10 fucking bucks you lose on a videogame. Also, in fact it did actually help to express sympathy for the ones that lost their jobs. There is a hastag that gets shared these last few days, #TelltaleJobs, and people in the industry and fans alike are willing and trying to help out the ones who are in need the most.

 

It's not the dev's fault that this game got cancelled. It's the higher ups that lacked any judgement for the forseeable fiscal future.

While I agree with you in that people should definitely get their refunds, I'd gladly refrain from mine so that that money goes to someone who can't pay for their rent come month. Although we know that's not a possibility, sadly.

 

It's easy to ridicule stuff like this if you've never been in financial trouble because of shit like this, but I find it hard to care for the season pass offerings of a videogame when the ugly thruth extends way farther than my personal entertainment.

 

J

[Sergen]

1 minute ago, Paleblood said:

 

Sometimes compassion is worth more than 10 fucking bucks you lose on a videogame. Also, in fact it did actually help to express sympathy for the ones that lost their jobs. There is a hastag that gets shared these last few days, #TelltaleJobs, and people in the industry and fans alike are willing and trying to help out the ones who are in need the most.

 

It's not the dev's fault that this game got cancelled. It's the higher ups that lacked any judgement for the forseeable fiscal future.

While I agree with you in that people should definitely get their refunds, I'd gladly refrain from mine so that that money goes to someone who can't pay for their rent come month. Although we know that's not a possibility, sadly.

 

It's easy to ridicule stuff like this if you've never been in financial trouble because of shit like this, but I find it hard to care for the season pass offerings of a videogame when the ugly thruth extends way farther than my personal entertainment.

 

J

 

I'm sure to get to the position of even working for Telltale in the first place, they would have gone through some difficulties in life. So this will simply be a temporary inconvenience to them, they'll all likely get a new job and settle quite nicely because they all worked hard for Telltale. There probably would be companies willing to give anyone from Telltale a chance to work with them just because of what happened, they just have to find the right opportunity. While it doesn't help to tell me that I'm being a terrible person on this website that Telltale employees have probably never heard of, it does help to spread the hashtag about jobs that could be available to the former employees. But the thing is, people have the right to complain about refunds when they invest in a product and expect to get the finished product in the future, if you let them keep doing things like this without any refunds then companies will do this thinking they can easily get away with it. 

[starcrunch061]

2 hours ago, Paleblood said:

Another really sad thing almost nobody talks about is that there are people who started as early as last week at Telltale.

One of them had to relocate, only to be fired without a reason and was given 30 minutes to leave the building.

 

The level of managerial incompetence is staggering to me. I hope the afflicted parties sue Telltale's fucking ass to the ground, so they can at least get compensation for the thremendous cost that is recolating to the bay area. Not even to mention that seemingly nobody got severance pay.

So how do they pay their next bill you might ask? Well, they don't know themselves yet so...

 

J

 

Unfortunately, employees have very little legal standing here, unless they can prove that the company presented a fraudulent picture of its health. 

 

If a company goes bankrupt (at least in the US), it really sucks for the employees. Creditors (bondholders) get first crack at the remaining assets, and then preferred and common stock holders get their cut. Employees are at the bottom of that pile. They can try to sue for back pay, but if a company is bankrupt, what are they suing? As my grandma always said: "You can't squeeze blood from a turnip" (talk about an comment with old man stink!). This is the world of American capitalism.

 

I do hope that people who bought the full season pass get a refund, but there's a good chance that they won't. This whole situation is a shit show. But at least FucKonami can be replaced with something like Teabag TellTale!

11 minutes ago, Sergen said:

 

if you let them keep doing things like this without any refunds then companies will do this thinking they can easily get away with it. 

 

This is my feeling, too. I truly do empathize with the workers who are losing jobs at TellTale. But to say that people can't expect companies to honor commitments because other people might suffer seems like too much of a cop-out. 

 

People asking for refunds aren't to blame for the travails of (former) workers at TellTale. There's no good reason to pass the buck here. The real villains are the higher-ups, and they should be raked over the coals by both groups.

[ProfBambam55]

this is quite interesting...it's odd that they would go out of business so suddenly and I agree with earlier posts that it seems quite fishy...at first glance, it definitely seems like management royally f**ked up but I'd be curious to know the details...it sucks when jobs are lost and it's great that support is going out to the employees...

 

i don't think we need to worry about companies following suit on this as I don't think going bankrupt to avoid refunding customers or releasing unfinished products is a particularly appealing business motto...my guess is that it will lead to management earning a very bad rep and limit potential future business relationships...

 

as a customer it definitely sucks to basically invest in a product only to find out that a poor investment was made...and no, I'm not blaming consumers...it was a very sudden announcement from what I've read...subtle warnings signs perhaps but nothing that would clearly indicate the game not getting completed...

 

with regards to refunds...does anyone know how they work?...my instinct is to say that Sony is responsible for digital purchase reimbursement in an odd case like this one but I don't actually now...i've also never tried to refund a digital purchase...any concrete intel?...or has anyone contacted Sony yet?...

[IntroPhenom]

I'm much less upset about getting a potential refund than I am at losing TellTale.  Very, very sad about that.

[Dragon-Archon]

This news came as a surprise for me, especially after TellTale announced to reduce the amount of projects and focus more on the quality of each game. I hope another company buys the rights and finishes TWD. Would've liked to see a sequel to TWAU and TftB too.

 

On 9/22/2018 at 1:22 PM, Maxie Mouse said:

Aaaand this is WHY I NEVER EVER purchase an episodic game and start with trophies until it’s finally complete. I always want the complete package at once!

 

The Telltale Games and Afro Samurai 2 cases give me much more reasons to NOT buy episodic games until they’re fully finished.

Same here, and also because the wait would be unbearable after playing an episode .

[Sergen]

32 minutes ago, ProfBambam55 said:

this is quite interesting...it's odd that they would go out of business so suddenly and I agree with earlier posts that it seems quite fishy...at first glance, it definitely seems like management royally f**ked up but I'd be curious to know the details...it sucks when jobs are lost and it's great that support is going out to the employees...

 

i don't think we need to worry about companies following suit on this as I don't think going bankrupt to avoid refunding customers or releasing unfinished products is a particularly appealing business motto...my guess is that it will lead to management earning a very bad rep and limit potential future business relationships...

 

as a customer it definitely sucks to basically invest in a product only to find out that a poor investment was made...and no, I'm not blaming consumers...it was a very sudden announcement from what I've read...subtle warnings signs perhaps but nothing that would clearly indicate the game not getting completed...

 

with regards to refunds...does anyone know how they work?...my instinct is to say that Sony is responsible for digital purchase reimbursement in an odd case like this one but I don't actually now...i've also never tried to refund a digital purchase...any concrete intel?...or has anyone contacted Sony yet?...

 

I've never had a refund either, but from what I've seen you would get a notification on your PS4 to inform you that your refund is being issued for a game, aside from that they would email you. Normally if the company themselves plans to issue refunds it is an automatic refund without any manual input being required from yourself. They said for Marvel Heroes Omega that they would refund the original payment method, which I assume would be returning the funds to your PSN wallet if you used a PSN card and returning the funds back to your credit/debit card or paypal if they are saved on your account and if they're not then they probably also refund that back to your PSN wallet. There's also a chance that if refunds are issued, people will lose the right to play Episode 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead's Final Season, as they normally give a lock icon to PS4 games that get refunds. 

[ProfBambam55]

21 minutes ago, Sergen said:

 

I've never had a refund either, but from what I've seen you would get a notification on your PS4 to inform you that your refund is being issued for a game, aside from that they would email you. Normally if the company themselves plans to issue refunds it is an automatic refund without any manual input being required from yourself. They said for Marvel Heroes Omega that they would refund the original payment method, which I assume would be returning the funds to your PSN wallet if you used a PSN card and returning the funds back to your credit/debit card or paypal if they are saved on your account and if they're not then they probably also refund that back to your PSN wallet. There's also a chance that if refunds are issued, people will lose the right to play Episode 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead's Final Season, as they normally give a lock icon to PS4 games that get refunds. 

this is quite interesting as well...i could see people being upset for having content locked upon earning a refund considering they were basically misled into buying a product that was incomplete...a question that might be worth considering is : how many people would've bought the game if they knew they were paying full price for half a product?...and how to compensate consumers in a justifiable manner since finishing their game seems highly unlikely at this point?...i don't think anyone wants to hear "telltale is bankrupt so too bad for you...deal with it"...although this might be the unfortunate reality of the situation...

 

i wonder how sony will play their cards on this one and what they are held accountable for legally...i know very little about digital sales and wonder whose money trades whose hands in a case like this where one party has none...inevitably someone has to take a loss out of this...so far, it seems to be on the consumers (and yes, the employees but not with regards to refunds)...curious to see what develops in the upcoming weeks...

Edited September 24, 2018 by ProfBambam55

[djb5f]

As someone who went through a large company going bankrupt, it was very similar to what I see happened with Telltale. 

 

There are some warning signs (various rounds of layoffs, shaky financial statements), but I can tell you it is sudden and feels like it comes out of nowhere. 

 

Once the decision is made to go bankrupt and shut down, it moves quickly.  So while the higher ups obviously know the company is not doing well, they are doing everything they can to scramble and save it until the final decision that it can't be saved and then it goes really fast.  So I don't think they had much lead time either although they definitely knew bankruptcy was a possibility if things kept going as they were.  They did not know they were not going to release the full season of Walking Dead until it got to the point that they had no other option but to shut down.

 

The 30 minutes to get your stuff and get out is standard.  No compassion but unfortunately just how it works so that now former employees don't sabotage anything on the way out or go postal. 

 

There will be a large list of creditors trying to get back their money, ultimately up to a court to decide who gets theirs first from the limited pool of money left.

 

Shame for the employees -  they made an impact on the gaming community for sure.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

How about this for an "everybody wins" situation:

 

TWD S3, Guardians Of The Galaxy S1 and Batman S2 go on PS+. With the money Sony will give them for that, they should be able to finish TWD S4.

 

Jokes aside, while I feel sorry for the actual programmers, writers and other ground crew losing their jobs, I won't lose sleep over Telltale itself. I feel like there was a huge drop in quality the past few years, I always felt like Telltale did the episodic model just so they could get their money before finishing their games (and then discounting season passes even before a second episode was released) and they were just buying up new IPs instead of continuing on the ones they had, except for TWD. A second season of Wolf Among Us would've brought them more dough than a first season of Game Of Thrones, because for Wolf you could reuse low profile voice actors and finished graphical assets while Game Of Thrones was a whole new game with a few expensive high profile television actors.

 

It's a shame many people have now paid for a game that will never be finished, but seeing as how extremely buggy Telltale titles were day one it's a surprise to me that people kept buying them up front, especially how every Telltale season pass would've been on sale about half a dozen times before the last episode even is released 

Edited September 24, 2018 by Spawn
Thanks for reminding me, Dargon-Archon!

[You]

Puts the whole "Episodic" thing into question doesn't it? I mean, they made trophies for the whole game and if it gets cancelled midway. How are refunds going to work?

Shenmue III was a shitty situation when practically 15 years went by and there wasn't a sequel to continue the story but at least that was a complete package.

Can you image if you got to a certain part in Shenmue II and then, it just stopped?

 

Every since Series 1 when they took so fricking long to bring out each episode (like 3 weeks late) I just waited till all their games were complete were buying and in situations like this, I am so glad I did/

[Paleblood]

2 hours ago, Sergen said:

While it doesn't help to tell me that I'm being a terrible person on this website that Telltale employees have probably never heard of, it does help to spread the hashtag about jobs that could be available to the former employees. But the thing is, people have the right to complain about refunds when they invest in a product and expect to get the finished product in the future, if you let them keep doing things like this without any refunds then companies will do this thinking they can easily get away with it. 

 

Never said you're a terrible person, on the contrary, I even agreed to the notion that people should get their money back. I also agree that in times like these we need to act as a community and raise our voices.

 

I just had trouble relating to this:

''I just won't add to the generic shit saying "Omg I'm so sorry they lost their jobs", because at the end of the day it doesn't help.''

 

Although I understand your witty critique on the ''Thoughts and prayers'' community I just think it's misplaced here, or at least how you depicted it. Because I am actually and truly sorry that they lost their jobs this way. My dad lost his under similar circumstances and never found a job that made him as happy as he was back there. He suffers from depression now, even a decade later, and I don't really think that this is funny in the slightest.

While my dad may be an extreme case, stuff like this happens. I hope what you speculated is how it goes down and they don't have a hard time finding a new one but I doubt it. 250 People is a lot after all.

Edited September 24, 2018 by Paleblood

[Dragon-Archon]

12 minutes ago, Spawn said:

TWD S3, Minecraft S1 Guardians of the Galaxy, and Batman S2 go on PS+. With the money Sony will give them for that, they should be able to finish TWD S4.

I corrected that for you .

[Sergen]

1 minute ago, Paleblood said:

 

Never said you're a terrible person, on the contrary, I even agreed to the notion that people should get their money back. I also agree that in times like these we need to act as a community and raise our voices.

 

I just had trouble relating to this:

''I just won't add to the generic shit saying "Omg I'm so sorry they lost their jobs", because at the end of the day it doesn't help.''

 

Although I understand your witty critique on the ''Thoughts and prayers'' community I just think it's misplaced here, or at least how you depicted it. Because I am actually and truly sorry that they lost their jobs this way. My dad lost his under similar circumstances and never found a job that made him as happy as he was back there. He suffers from depression now, even a decade later, and I don't really think that is funny in the slightest.

While my dad may be an extrem case, stuff like this happens. I hope what you speculated is how it goes down and they don't have a hard time finding a new one but I doubt it. 250 People is a lot after all.

 

I was told by the previous poster that what I said was terrible. But I am sorry that your dad has been depressed about losing a job and that it has hit you on a personal level, so I can see why you'd feel bad for those people. However, this discussion didn't have to be brought up about me, as I never left a stance on how I felt about the situation until someone said "wow, 250 people lost their job and you only think about trophies?" when the person who made the topic asked how this could affect trophies. The reason I wouldn't have spent money on an episodic series as it was progressing really is because of things like this, although I trusted Telltale to never have to go through this. But I think more people will be happy with their new job than upset that they lost their old one when they find a new job in the gaming industry. I think when you work in the gaming industry, you would kind of have to expect your job isn't going to last you for the rest of your life, as the gaming industry is incredibly demanding and full of frequent lay offs for near-enough every company out there. 

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

3 minutes ago, Dragon-Archon said:

I corrected that for you .

 

Shoot, I forgot they'd made that one. I just remembered Minecraft because I played the first episode when it became free, but I didn't even like it. Yes, I'd much rather have Guardians. Guess I'll fix my post too.