Telltale Games Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit

Telltale Games is now facing a class-action lawsuit from a former employee that alleges the studio violated California labor laws after laying off hundreds of employees.

Filed Monday in a San Francisco federal court (via Polygon), the complaint that was submitted by Vernie Roberts with the suit representing himself and other workers who were laid off by Telltale Games. Within the complaint, he said that the employees were let go "without cause" and cited the WARN Act as an example of the company's violations seeing how no advance notice was given for the layoffs.

Within Roberts' complaint, he says that Telltale Games' layoffs affected around 275 employees, a higher number than had previously been reported, though it seems that the number factors in both the laid-off group and the remaining employees. These employees that were laid off said that they aren't receiving any severance pay following their departure from the company and will only have healthcare coverage for one more week, that statement from a former Telltale Games employee coming several days ago.

To clarify some questions people have been asking (and keep in mind I am NOT a company rep)
- Around 250 people are jobless, not 225
- We did not get any kind of severance
- Our healthcare only lasts for one more week
- Many former employees were contract & can't get unemployment

— Emily Grace Buck plz hire TTG devs! (@emilybuckshot) September 22, 2018

The Telltale Games layoffs were first reported days ago when now former employees gave their accounts of what had happened and said that only 25 employees remained at the studio, a skeleton crew compared to the hundreds that were previously employed. Telltale Games later confirmed that event in what it called a "majority studio closure" brought on by "insurmountable challenges."

Since the layoffs happened with the studio now employing a fraction of what it previously did, the future of Telltale Games' ongoing and future projects has been uncertain. The Walking Dead: The Final Season, for example, was still being worked on with Episode 2 going live just recently. While even the voice actor for Clementine, one of the protagonists in Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, was unsure of the game's future, Telltale Games appears to be looking into alternatives for how the final two episodes can be finished.

pic.twitter.com/evqg5X98WZ

— Telltale Games (@telltalegames) September 21, 2018

Polygon's report on the new class-action lawsuit that was filed says that Roberts and the other plaintiffs are seeking compensation for laid-off employees in accordance with federal and California law.