After the closure of Telltale studios, more information has been coming out, along with takes from industry professionals. The closure of the studio took the industry by storm because of how sudden it occurred, as well as the controversy surrounding the ex employees.
In an interview with Twinfinite, Luc Bernard, Chief Creative Officer of development studio, Arcade Distillery, comments on the downfall of Telltale and how their closure might have been avoided.
I asked Bernard what he makes of the whole situation and he had this to say, “With the Telltale thing, I’m looking at it from a business point of view. They really fucked themselves by only having licenses. They don’t have any original IP, right?”
Bernard continues, “So that made their company not valuable. That’s why they couldn’t save it. They couldn’t sell the company. Everyone was amazed. They don’t own anything. They’re pretty much a shell of a company.”
Bernard also had some thoughts on the size of the studio. “I think they grew too fast. 250 people? Holy shit, that’s a bit too many people. So, I think they grew too fast and had nothing that belonged to them and that’s where they went wrong.”
He went on, “I think they would have avoided this if they actually had IP. They were obviously not making enough [money].”
Finally, Bernard had his take on the founders of Telltale. “It’s a very sad situation. I don’t think any of the founders were like, ‘Haha we aren’t going to pay anyone.’ They probably thought they’d be able to save it and they didn’t manage to, you know?”
It seems like owning original IP is important in this industry and perhaps other developers can use this as a learning lesson to try and prevent this situation from happening again. Hopefully the ex Telltale developers all land on their feet.
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