10 Terrible Decisions That Doomed Popular Video Game Companies
8. Sticking To A Formula (And Not Changing Their Engine) - Telltale
The demise of Telltale is undeniably tragic, and it stings so much because pretty much everyone other than those inside the company saw the warning signs for years. After shooting to success with the first season of The Walking Dead, the studio quickly put another season into production alongside a whole host of other licensed adaptations.
Quickly expanding their focus, they went from juggling a single project to multiple at the same time, which led to an immediate, if not drastic, decrease in quality across the board. It didn't help that their newfound success meant that they couldn't get away with the imperfections that their engine caused either, which resulted in games that crashed, employed wonky animations and all around felt a little amateur when compared to even other indie games.
This resulted in fans and critics alike becoming sick of having to wrestle with games themselves in order to find the enjoyment, but there was a much more insidious problem that was driving the studio into the ground.
According to a lengthy report on The Verge into the studio's final days, a bunch of former employees all pointed towards one reason for the closure: the fear from those in charge over taking any creative risks. Allegedly, Telltale's higher ups demanded that every future game follow the same structure and formula of the original season of The Walking Dead, which led to all their releases feeling familiar, and franchise fatigue setting in across the board.
[JB]