Today, out of nowhere, Telltale Games announced that it would soon be closing its doors, and in the meantime downsized significantly, maintaining only a skeleton crew to see out “obligations to its board and partners.”
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While it appears that this means that the team will wrap up The Walking Dead: The Final Season (UPDATE: it apparently won’t be doing this), the future of its other announced works — such as its projects with Netflix, which includes a Stranger Things game — wasn’t made clear.
That said, since news of the closing broke, Netflix has provided a statement to Variety, who reached out to the company for a comment about its partnership with the developer. The following statement is provided via an official spokesperson:
“We are saddened by the news about Telltale Games – they developed many great games in the past and left an indelible mark in the industry. Minecraft: Story Mode is still moving forward as planned. We are in the process of evaluating other options for bringing the Stranger Things universe to life in an interactive medium.”
As you can see, while plans for Minecraft: Story Mode will remain unchanged, it appears, perhaps rather unsurprisingly, that the Stranger Things project is dead. However, Netflix does tease that it is exploring other options, so hopefully that will manifest into another game announcement in the near-future.
There’s currently not many, if any, developers offering the type of experience Telltale was, at least at the same quality and quantity level. So, if Netflix opts to pursue a project similar to what it had cooking with Telltale, it will likely find itself with limited options. Perhaps this will lead to a different type of game, though what type of genre Stranger Things could lend itself to beyond narrative adventure, remains to be seen.
Regardless of whatever comes of this, it sounds like we could be hearing about a Stranger Things project in the near-ish future. Maybe sometime in 2019?
As always, feel free to hit the comments section and let us know what you think. What should Netflix do with the Stranger Things IP? Pursue a project with another Telltale-like studio or try something different?
