Last week brought the unfortunate news that Telltale Games, the developer behind acclaimed episodic titles such as The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, would begin a majority studio closure that resulted in the layoffs of the majority of its staff. In the wake of the news, the fate of the studio’s current project, The Walking Dead: The Final Season, was left hanging in the balance, and now for the time being, the game is being removed from sale on digital platforms.
As seen on the store pages of several platforms, The Walking Dead: The Final Season is appearing to be removed from sale through digital retailers. As of this writing, the game’s removal from sale appears to have taken effect on the PlayStation Store (other than a demo page for the first episode), the Xbox Games Store, Steam, and GOG. In a note specifically on the GOG page for the game, the company stated that “Telltale has requested a temporary pause of sales of The Walking Dead – Final Season,” which likely explains the removal from other digital platforms.
The only major digital platform that still has the game’s season pass available for purchase (as of this writing) is the Nintendo Switch eShop. However, given the proximity to its removal on the previously-mentioned platforms, it would be expected that the game may be removed from that platform as well in the near future.
This comes in light of the fact that it’s unknown just yet whether Telltale Games will be able to deliver the two remaining episodes of the planned four-episode season, as the development team working on the title were reported to have been among the staff laid off from the studio.
Given the developing nature of the circumstances surrounding Telltale Games, its remaining projects, and growing legal and financial complications from among its former employees, the removal of the game from sale (for now) until a more certain outcome can be determined for its last two episodes is surely a wise business move, until the picture of the studio’s future becomes a bit clearer.