On September 21st of this year, Telltale Games – acclaimed developers of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, and more – laid off a majority of its workforce with no severance package and closed its doors for good. For weeks after the announcement, information regarding the shutdown and what would happen to existing projects was still in the air.
Over two weeks later, Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment announced that they had plans to complete Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season for those who had purchased the season pass and bring Clementine’s story to an end. The company promised to work with previous Telltale Games developers to help finish production.
Today, Skybound has offered an update on their official website that announces the resuming of development for the final episodes of the game. The news comes after recent sightings of old Telltale games disappearing from Steam and other platforms as a result of reported asset liquidation.
“It’s been a ton of work logistically and legally to get us to a place where we’re able to roll up our sleeves and get to the actual work. […] We’re excited to let you know that many of the talented, passionate team members who originally worked on the game are resuming development efforts today!”
According to the company, the release dates of both episodes will be revealed shortly and they assure that those who have already purchased the entire season prior to the studio’s closure will not have to buy the episodes again.
It finally seems that plans to finish Telltale’s final project are full steam ahead. The context and impact behind the final episodes will become an emotional blow once we get our hands on them, for sure. I hope they take their time making it so that the remaining Telltale developers working on this have a decent amount of time find new work for after The Walking Dead: The Final Season wraps.
DualShockers will update you when Skybound announces an official release date for both remaining episodes. You should be able to purchase prior seasons and the new season once the company sorts everything out internally.