Telltale Games might be dead and gone, but its zombie has returned in the form of a new company: Telltale Games. Well, LCG Entertainment, anyway, which will be doing business as Telltale Games after the former bought the assets, trademarks, and certain intellectual property rights of the latter. While this is a revival of the brand, and there will be a Telltale Games out there putting video games out, it’s important to understand that this is not the company it was, and the vast majority of the people it was previously comprised of have likely moved on entirely.
The new Telltale Games comes from Jamie Ottilie and Brian Waddle, and investors and advisers on the new project include Chris Kingsley (Rebellion), Lyle Hall (Heavy Iron Studios), and Athlon Games — as shareholder and publishing partner — as well as several others. Ottilie and Waddle were, admittedly, not involved in the previous incarnation of the company, but the business partners claim they wanted to make sure the company didn’t just fade away.
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“We dug in and, and took a look and nosed around,” Ottilie told GameDaily.biz. “… the more we looked at it, the more we kind of went, ‘Hey, this is a good business, this is a viable business and it seems like under the right conditions this could be stood back up and we can continue to enjoy Telltale Games and like game makers tell stories.’”
The press release announcing the new company notes that “key talent” from Telltale Games as it originally existed has either been hired or contracted, though it’s unclear just how many people, and Ottilie told Polygon that some folks from the original incarnation will receive freelance offers with full-time employment as a potential future offering.
Exactly which games the new Telltale actually has access to remains unclear. The official press release notes that more information on those rights will be announced in the coming weeks, and various interviews from Ottilie and Waddle about the new company seem to confirm that titles like The Wolf Among Us, Batman, and Puzzle Agent are with the new version, but The Walking Dead — arguably the largest hit for the original company — went to Skybound. The rest of the previous licenses like Borderlands, for instance, are anybody’s guess.
“There is still a huge fanbase of Telltale players and that’s one of the main reasons we decided to make this investment,” Waddle, who serves as chief revenue officer for the new Telltale Games, said in the press release announcing the new version of the company. “It’s hard to see your favorite games disappear or not get the sequels they deserve, so we thank everyone for their patience and support. We’ve got some exciting things to share soon. We’ll try not to keep them waiting too long, but we think fans will be pleased.”
The new Telltale Games is reportedly going to continue to develop games, but until something actually comes of that, it’s unclear what that might look like — though various interviews indicate that the new company is interested in updating its tools, technology, and development model. In short, the episodic nature of the original Telltale releases might be a thing of the past.
What do you think of the new Telltale? Are you excited to see someone revive it? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming! You can check out all of our previous coverage of Telltale Games right here.
