One month ago, popular games developer Telltale announced that they would be shutting down leaving 250 people without jobs, no severance and no health insurance. Previously, Telltale released 90 employees from the company in November 2017 which equaled to roughly 25% of employees at the time. Those 90 employees were granted pay until the end of 2017. However, the recent 250 employees who were laid off weren’t granted the same 'goodbye' packages. Many of the recent lay-offs took to Twitter with many saying they had to leave within a certain time and that the lack of severance due to the company running out of money meant that many were left with no way to pay for basic essentials.
After many different factors which caused the shutdown, such as the lawsuit against the former CEO, Kevin Bruner, and the loss of potential investors, a new deal to help finish some of their games such as The Walking Dead has been implemented.
Many games have been removed from Steam such as Back to the Future, Minecraft: Story Mode and Game of Thrones. Although some of Telltale's products are still up on the Playstation Store and XBOX Marketplace, it is unclear how long they will appear there.
The liquidation proceedings have forced Telltale to sell their assets including furniture, copyrights and software. Former employees have proceeded by file a lawsuit, claiming that Telltale violated labour laws by letting its employees go without cause.
The lawsuit also claims that Telltale let employees go “without providing them with advance written notice as required by the WARN Act”. The WARN Act states that most businesses with at least 100 full-time employees must notify workers 60 days in advance of any closings or mass layoffs with mass layoffs meaning around 50 or more employees within a 30-day period. It is unclear what will come of the lawsuit and of Telltale's legacy.