'Minecraft' Episode Developer Telltale Games Lays Off 25% of Employees
Telltale Games, the development studio behind episodic games based on "Minecraft: Story Mode" and "The Walking Dead," is downsizing. The company is letting go of about 90 of their workers, who represent about a quarter of their workforce, as it announced in a press release.
Industry watchers were largely not surprised, as this round of restructuring followed the appointment of Pete Hawley from Zynga as the new CEO of the developer company. He stepped in earlier this September to take over from Dan Connors, one of the co-founders of Telltale Games back in 2004, according to Game Informer.
Perhaps drawing from his previous company's experience with blockbuster games like "Farmville" and "Zynga Poker," Hawley started a shift in the direction that Telltale Games would take.
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Before him, the studio has been steadily expanding over the last five years by taking on new licensed episodic projects like "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Batman," and an upcoming "The Wolf Among Us" title.
"Our industry has shifted in tremendous ways over the past few years," Hawley said in a statement. "The realities of the environment we face moving forward demand we evolve, as well, reorienting our organization with a focus on delivering fewer, better games with a smaller team," he added, as quoted by Polygon.
Telltale Games looks like it would be trying to hold on to their projects with just 75 percent of their staff since the restructuring is "not expected to impact the release of any of the company's previously announced projects," according to the developer.
Even as the company has been dealing with criticism for the various performance issues and bugs in its products in recent years, the new management is planning to shake things up even more. In a statement, Telltale also mentions a plan to move "over to more proven technologies that will fast-track innovation in its core products."
