This time last year, Telltale was quietly suffering through the slings and arrows of a struggling business. By September 2018, the studio shuttered, laying off much of its staff and canceling numerous projects. Telltale Games is receiving a second wind, though, as LCG Entertainment’s purchased the studio’s assets and kickstarted a relaunch. This return is being shepherded by industry veterans Jamie Ottilie and Brian Waddle, both of whom hail from the technology and mobile gaming side of the business. Ottilie and Waddle are hiring and contracting “key talent” from the previous team, though we don’t know who is coming back.
Details on how exactly things will operate from here have yet to be announced. However, the company’s new leadership does have a few plans. For one, this new iteration of Telltale Games, which will make Malibu, California its home base, will re-release “select games” from its back catalog. In addition, some of the studio’s “best-selling brands” are in line to receive additional installments. New information in this regard will emerge “in the coming weeks,” according to a statement from the studio.
Speaking with Polygon, Ottilie outlined what Telltale’s next few months of operation will entail.
We’re going to stay small over the next six months and we will work for more of a distributed development pipeline than Telltale was known for. We’ll focus on tools, technology and design in-house. Some things like animation and motion capture will be done with the right partnerships externally.
On the topic of Telltale’s well known episodic model, Ottilie explained that while the basis of this will remain intact, players should anticipate changes with regards to “pacing.”
We will probably keep the concept of episodes but with different pacing. This is a different world, from a media consumption standpoint. We need to look at how people like to entertain themselves. I like the idea of binge watching.”
It’s worth noting that neither Ottilie nor Waddle have history working with Telltale in the past. Therefore, while such news warrants excitement, there’s currently no way of knowing whether this version of the beloved studio will carry within it the DNA that made the original team so celebrated.
