Telltale’s Comeback Is A Bittersweet Experience For Me

I’ve been was a fan of Telltale Games from way before their breakout success with The Walking Dead. I loved their point-and-click adventures and even their poker games, so to me they weren’t a company that came out of nowhere. They were already the kings of licensed games in my book, and I was happy for them that they finally got deep success.

But their downfall is a story you may know even better. We now know Telltale as the company that made too many games and went bankrupt, all the way back in 2018. Since then, another company by the name of LCG bought the name and most of the licenses in 2019. The Expanse is their first release since this purchase (The Walking Dead Season 3 finished by Skybound Games, which I’ll chat about later). And while early reviews of the game based on the sci-fi series are promising, my own long history with Telltale makes their current ventures a bit of a bittersweet experience.

RELATED: 10 Best Telltale Games, Ranked

The picture above is from my personal collection. These were special PC DVDs sold directly from Telltale Games, which you could only get if you bought the full season of the game digitally. These DVDs, *drum roll here*, cost you $1. After your website profile showed you owned the full episode set, you paid the dollar and were sent the DVD. You could even just show them your Steam profile, they accepted that. The Back To The Future one was a special edition with bonus goodies, so it ended up being I think $12, but that was the single exception. If I remember correctly, you didn’t even pay for shipping.

There’s nothing more indie than that: a company so happy people loved their games that they set up a reward program that by design really couldn’t make money, but would give repeat customers a way to own their beloved games in a more permanent fashion. These DVDs were full of bonuses too! Bloopers, behind-the-scenes, commentary, you name it.

But when The Walking Dead was a massive success, the entire storefront just vanished around a year after. No more collectible DVDs, and even the shirts and shot glasses anyone could buy were gone too. This was a hot issue on the forums, and the response from Telltale was to close the forums. You didn’t need to be a fly on the wall to figure out that the upper brass at Telltale got arrogant after finally tasting massive popularity.

Betrayed and heartbroken as part of me still is, I’ve never held a grudge against the narrative choices games that Telltale moved onto after their point-and-click era. So many critics and pundits want games to innovate these days, and that’s what Telltale did, because the moment I played The Walking Dead I noticed the layout and controls were basically how Sam & Max played. The secret is that these were basically point-and-click games, but with the focus shifted to narrative decisions instead of puzzles and picking up an item to use later.

While playing Season 2 I figured out quickly the choices really are superficial, things pretty much always play out the way the writers planned. This isn’t a bad thing, it just means the card trick here is making you emotionally attached, and you need to make sure those emotions are strong.

You also need to make sure the market isn’t oversaturated.

Telltale quadruple-dipped into their formula. I won’t lie, looking through our collection of Telltale pictures, I saw games I completely forgot about. I remembered Batman, and Borderlands, and Fable, but even I forgot that Guardians of the Galaxy got a Telltale game. And I remember Hector: Badge Of Carnage. If anything proves Telltale made too many games to ever make their money back, it’s that. Even the obsessive former fanboy can’t remember them all.

I recently said I think Sony should revive Twisted Metal to diversify their first-party IP away from ‘third-person story-led adventures,’ but what Telltale did was on a completely different level. And they had an out. The point-and-clicks were different enough to change pace (not to mention all the poker games they could have made). But those didn’t pull in the sales the narrative choice game did, and that was likely the issue. New Telltale lost their humility, they weren’t the humble little studio happy with any fans at all, they were big names who had to be a blockbuster hit every single time.

As someone who saw it unfolding in real-time, I remember people suddenly feeling there were too many games and too many pretend choices, and then being floored when bankruptcy and liquidation were announced. Former employees spoke out during the liquidation, about how many higher-ups got too important and greedy. Which, just felt like news I’d already known when the site died years prior.

So what happened after the bankruptcy? Well, a lot of the old games got delisted, and some still are. However, LCG Entertainment bought the name and a good chunk of the properties. They are the ones making The Expanse, and, well, there’s just something off about the whole thing. I watched some trailers and, okay, I’m not impressed, but that wasn’t my only problem. There’s also this issue where it feels like LCG seems to think we’ve all forgotten how badly Telltale fell. I hear promos about “Telltale is back!” and the return of the ol’ Telltale magic, but that name was dragged through the mud, so harshly it feels like they’re brushing off those criticisms. I don’t even know if that’s the intention or not.

I also question the IP. I know nothing about The Expanse, and that could be a ‘me’ thing, as I polled my lovely co-workers here and most of them had heard about the IP. Some even watched a whole season, and I also learned there were books. But, I did more research, and the show was canceled about a year and a half ago. I’m not crazy in thinking this is bad timing, am I? This makes the situation feel more like fulfilling an old contract, which shouldn’t be the case for a bought-out company that went bankrupt. It’s great that early feedback on the game is positive, but a great game isn’t always a great-selling game.

Then there’s the fact that most of the old staff is not back. They bought the name, but only a few employees returned. This makes it feel off when they upload YouTube Shorts asking fans their favorite Telltale game or quote, because while it’s nice to see them remember the fans again, it comes with the caveat that almost all the people who actually made those games were fired from the company under acrimonious circumstances. That’s not the fault of Telltale Games in its current form, but for a fan like me it inevitably taints this cheery nostalgia-baiting campaign.

I want to mention that other former developers now work for Skybound and Skunkape. Skybound owns The Walking Dead IP, they make both games and movies, and they admittedly do have ties to current Telltale but outside of keeping the old Walking Dead games on storefronts, I’m not sure of the full extent. Skunkape Games meanwhile are currently content to remaster Sam & Max, which fans are loving.

As much love as I have for classic Telltale, there’s nothing about Telltale’s alleged return that’s reassuring me. Something feels very wrong, from the lackluster trailers to the reliance on praising all past efforts despite the staff no longer being the same.

I am hoping for something, but not holding my breath. I was betrayed by a Telltale Games once before, I just hope this time the arrogance isn’t back too.

NEXT: 10 Best Games With Shocking/Unexpected Ending