Now confirmed Telltale Studios closing down

[Neon Ignition]

Given how poor sales are supposed to have been it feels like there's no chance anyone will touch Telltales series with a barge pole as means of a continuation and given this news I imagine the same goes for the ending of TWD Season 4 as well now.

[Brad]

Other devs must know the code base is poor too, given the bugs that never get fixed.

[Family Fry]

Now been confirmed that Skybound Games will finish the final season of the walking dead.

We’re SO happy to announce that we’ve reached a deal with Telltale games that will allow Skybound to continue The Walking Dead⁠: The Final Season! Let’s wrap up Clem’s story right! More details to come soon.

[Dogg Thang]

And apparently aiming to hire previous team members which is good. And probably necessary given that Skybound has never done anything like this on their own before.

[fishbowlhead]

Seems like a waste of money carrying on with the walking dead games given how spectacularly TellTale has imploded.

I mean MAYBE if you could finish it with 5 people so it didn’t drain any reasourses.

Would be better off cherry picking the best talent and leaving the franchises to die.

[Dogg Thang]

They were very far into this last season so it would have been a shame at least not to finish it. Also people had already paid for the entire season so there is at least a certain level of obligation to do so.

[Family Fry]

I mean this was billed as the final season and people wanted to see how Clementine’s story ended, there’s no denying people were invested in the series. I’m glad to see that the fans will get those final episodes in some form and hopefully some of the staff from telltale can come back on board and get a chance to finish what they started.

[Digfox]

Now been confirmed that Skybound Games will finish the final season of the walking dead.

Sounds like Skybound have basically purchased all the rights to the comic book TWD licence. So I would imagine thay have bigger plans such as mobile games etc. Therefore they will probably just want to ship the remaining TWD S4 episodes with minimum of fuss given the limited commercial viability of those.

Would be interesting to know whether Telltale finished the Netflix work or whether their contract with Netflix changed. And indeed how the studio is being shut down.

[Dogg Thang]

Skybound is Kirkman’s company. It owns Walking Dead so I’m sure the rights would revert back to them by default if Telltale couldn’t fulfill their contract.

[Digfox]

Skybound is Kirkman’s company. It owns Walking Dead so I’m sure the rights would revert back to them by default if Telltale couldn’t fulfill their contract.

Certainly Variety used the words 'negotiated' rather than Skybound taking back ownership of the rights. And without exact details on Telltales failure we can't be sure whether money wasn't involved (i.e. paid to Telltale). Although I see your point, that the owner of TWD probably has a vested interest that fans aren't left in the lurch.

[Dogg Thang]

They would have to negotiate for the rights to the actual game content and files and to finish off the game, not the Walking Dead license itself. I would be surprised if any money changed hands because, if anything, Telltale would have owed Skybound money for the license and rights to make the game in the first place and anything that helps Telltale fulfill its obligations they would have jumped at.

[Digfox]

Telltale still owned the legal claim to the licence so we can't state that Skybound simply inherited the licence with no money involved. However I cede that point the deal would have to be negotiated because of the complications around tech etc. And also that Telltale probably did owe money for the license anyway. The owner is likely to take more financial risks given the damage to their brand/IP.

[Brad]

Could they not have just made a video showing how things end up? Or would your actions actually play a part in the story outcome with regard to the main character?

[Digfox]

Could they not have just made a video showing how things end up? Or would your actions actually play a part in the story outcome with regard to the main character?

I think the problem is that they sold the whole season already. So people have paid for and have a right to expect two more episodes.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep.

No rights owner who knows what they are doing allows a scenario where their rights go dormant or can’t be exploited. In a case like this, there are a number of possible contracted scenarios with the main one being that, if Telltale can’t fulfill the terms of the license, the rights revert. Usually a company will have about 30 days to show they can but I’ve seen this be as little as 7 days. In cases where the rights are big properties or owned by large media companies, I have seen it that, in the same scenario, the rights owner can send their own people into your company to restructure, getting all access to their finances (I have had to sign this once and it’s a scary prospect). Also I have never seen a case where rights can be sub licensed by a company like Telltale so they likely couldn’t have handed them over to anyone without Skybound’s approval anyway.

I can’t imagine a scenario where Telltale made any money on this deal, only perhaps lost a little less. If they survive at all, I wouldn’t be surprised if they still end up owning Skybound as part of this for failing to deliver on the license in the first place.