Why Telltale Games Died

[@robokast]

Enjoying this video? Check out my newest one on the tragic downfall of Guitar Hero: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWGrf4qnppygrpY Also... Check out Manta Sleep here tinyurl.com/5cm8svfj and make sure to use code "robokast" for 10% off your order!

[@specialmnoo]

Yes all of it

[@Jan12700]

Scam

[@rassest]

I played the walking dead and jurassic park and mc story mode decided to play game of thrones now

[@Mintcar923]

I loved Walking Dead 1 & 2 on Vita but sadly my system no longer works so I rebought on ps4.. Started replaying just hadn’t finished yet.. Also got several in the collection I hadn’t really gotten to yet although I did try em out.. Most recently picked up The Expanse around the holidays.. It’s a good style.. BTW I’m old enough to remember the Scholastic Wizware games from the 80’s.. Kinda the TT of that time

[@cameronadey7004]

it has been 5 months!!! still no kenshi part 2 like you promised. that's wild.

[@monkeycorpz7982]

Feels like a bad omission to not mention the Telltale: Stranger Things game or the new engine that was in development with it. Many ex-employees said that the aforementioned was supposed to be the savior of the company, and that The Walking Dead Final Season and Minecraft Story Mode Season Two were just supposed to keep the company afloat long enough to finish those projects.

[@NicoTheCinderace]

Yeah, that's my problem too. Very key details are left out, and that kind of bugs me.

[@TheNameIsSR]

Also that new telltale has already released a game based on the expanse, which seems to have a mixed to mostly positive reception by fans.

[@EternalNightingale]

@@TheNameIsSR whattt I didn’t know that I thought they were just working on wolf 2 but anyways I wish for a Batman season 3 and maybe guardians also but I doubt it

[@TheNameIsSR]

@@EternalNightingale there wasn't really any marketing or buzz, so it's not that weird you missed it.

[@jmgonzales7701]

I wish they added more variety to their games like i like the story and all that but for example i never liked quick time events as their basis for action. Hope they learn from it and add more variety.

[@busiestnebula5186]

bro telltale games was so big that people literally talked about them like it was its own genre of games and not just a game studio if it wasng for rushed projects miss management and lack of innovation they couldve been one of the biggest names in recent gaming history

[@laphonz]

facts. I thought telltale games was just a style of choice based games

[@lukassiqueira314]

They were the dark souls of game studios

[@RockyLaRosa]

It was so good netflix had minecraft story mode and other interactive shows and movies Long ago it still has some

[@pennefries4642]

That's cause telltale is a genre

[@ricniks4619]

Ikr like when Detroit Become Human came out some people were saying “So this is like Tell Tale?” 😂

[@RevanMaverick]

The Wolf Among Us season 2 is still my most anticipated game this year. I just really want more Bigby and Fabletown.

[@mialiis6517]

This year is veeeery hopeful, if it comes out at all. It wasnt at summer game fest and telltale hasn’t said a word about it this year, id say if at all then 2026

[@RevanMaverick]

@@mialiis6517 They already delayed it from last year, but yeah it sucks that we haven't heard anything about it.

[@markstruckmeyer9193]

Never played the game, but loved the graphic novels. I'll have to check the first one out after all these years.

[@RevanMaverick]

@@markstruckmeyer9193 After playing the first game, I read a couple volumes of Fables and was enjoying it. I was missing the music and beautiful colors the game had, but the comics were still beautiful and I was glad to be spending more time with Bigby and Snow. There's so much more Fables comics and spinoffs that I want to read. I should start doing that since I really have no idea when or if I'll actually get to play TWAU2.

[@simoneidson21]

@@RevanMaverickI can’t stand Bigby in the comics. Bigby in the comics is a complete fucking psychopath, when even if you made some of the meaner decisions, Bigby in the game seemed to genuinely want to repent for his actions

[@MelodyMoonxo]

The walking dead game had me feeling empty and lost after I completed it, It'll always remain one of my favourite games, so sad to see the downfall of telltale.

[@jbanana9075]

Is it worth it to continue after season 1?

[@MelodyMoonxo]

@@jbanana9075 absolutely worth it to play them all :)

[@EarlOSandwich]

@@jbanana9075 100% yes. It's my favorite game series ever

[@LelandJ71]

​@@jbanana9075hell yeah

[@RockyLaRosa]

They are all good dont listen to those guys

[@Masterho310]

The only really top selling game they made was walking dead season 1. They got stretched super thin with tons of other games like borderlands, Minecraft, Batman, game of thrones, and wolf among us, plus all the later seasons of walking dead. None of which sold particularly well and that was that. I personally loved wolf among us and am sad a season 2 never happened.

[@LucYGaming_]

Yeah, season 3 and 4 of TWD were just shit, and the 4th was ugly AF, i still think to this day the game was broken

[@_hamzah23]

I wonder if the lack of sales was because of the game's nature, like it's not the kind of game that you need to play it to feel it, you can simply watch it on YT and not bother buying it

[@Masterho310]

@@LucYGaming_ Making these games though not super labor intensive like other games still required time and love. Once Season 1 of the Walking dead released to critical acclaim the writers responsible for how good it was left telltale and made their own studio Campo Santo and created their flagship first game Firewatch. With the main writers responsible for season 1 being so good gone it's no wonder the subsequent seasons sucked. And gamers knew it.

[@Masterho310]

@@_hamzah23 You are correct about this. After the buzz of how good the first game was wore off and most people who were interested had played it, I feel like everyone else just watched the game on YT for free. And for those who didn't all it took was buying one bad telltale game like the god awful game of thrones game to make you never want to pay money for any of their products ever again.

[@LucYGaming_]

@@Masterho310 yeah i know, what i ment is, seasom 3 and 4 had some parts of the game that made no sense to me, like when they use Clementine as a trade to get to the City? Like... they get inside regardless of the choice you take xd, and they still lock them up

[@Sheepy007]

Why telltale games died? Here is my personal experience and explanation. I was a huge fan of telltale games and bought „tales from the borderlands season 1“ day 1 to download and play episode 1. Do you know when episode 2 was released? 4 MONTHS LATER!!! And episode 3? Another 3 months after that!! After 7 months the game was on sale for less than half the price I originally paid for and it was still not a complete game. I was absolutely pissed and vowed to never play a telltale game until all of the episodes have been released

[@SianaGearz]

I played it eventually long after full release and liked Tales from the Borderlands.

[@Sheepy007]

@@SianaGearz The game itself was really good, but from starting the game at release, to being able to finish the game, was a 11 month wait period inbetween

[@Samuelt0125]

This. I remember i would watch youtubers play the game and it would always end in a cliff hanger, and that shit eventually got tiring so i just stopped watching until it was completely done

[@jmgonzales7701]

I wish they added more variety to their games like i like the story and all that but for example i never liked quick time events as their basis for action. Hope they learn from it and add more variety.

[@carlosmontejolll2001]

this is why they were forced to prioritize quantity over quality, cause a majority of new younger players think like this

[@palaceofwisdom9448]

"make choices that actually matter" Except that the same characters lived or died regardless, so your choices NEVER mattered. That realization was when I stopped feeling any investment in a Telltale game.

[@beyondviolet]

not necessarily true, you did dictate a few major plot things. But the choices were really more about the dialogue and character moments you got to see, so in that regard there were a lot of choices.

[@JohnWall-lj1mx]

@@beyondvioletthen why pay full price when you can just watch a KZbinr play the game and get the same experience for free

[@beyondviolet]

@@JohnWall-lj1mx you could make the same argument for every let’s play ever… hell even Detroit Become Human had enough videos done on it that you never “needed” to play it yourself to see everything.

[@sirmagnifus7350]

​@@beyondviolet yeah but the choices did matter

[@beyondviolet]

@@sirmagnifus7350 mattered for the plot, yeah. But not everyone places as much value on that

[@tgs5725]

TWD Seasons 1,2,4, Both Batman games, Wolf Among Us, and Tales from the Borderlands were all FIRE as fuck bro

[@extisharked7488]

new frontier too imo, way too overhated

[@tgs5725]

@@extisharked7488 I personally cant even go back and finish New Frontier because it's so bad. I think its terrible. The writing is horrendous. Kate is a terrible "co-host" to Javi because the game basically forces a relationship with her when shes your brothers wife. And Gabe absolutely sucks as a character. Hes such a whiny cry-baby. He should have died instead of Mariana. IMO they should have never had Clem in the game if they wanted us to side with this new band of characters. Because I ended up exclusively making choices that benefited Clem. Even when it would hurt the new characters, I dont care about them over Clem.

[@cdaffpunk1064]

@@tgs5725Yeah New Frontier just didn’t make sense to me. I would’ve loved to see Clem in that city after Kenny dropped her off and left.

[@extisharked7488]

@@tgs5725 I only benefited clem too lmao yeah I agree with you, Gabe and Kate were shitty written, forced romance but the graphics and the gameplay was pretty good and Javi was a good character, I feel like Clem there actually added something to the plot, Tripp was also a great character, worst out of all of the seasons but it still aint that bad imo

[@_DELT4]

I mean I get it, but Javier is a good character :( and some plots were cool such as the Tapp and Joan one. I think NF is a cool TWD game, just, doesn't respect the original time-line

[@jayayy9217]

Honestly I believe that the cost of franchising popular titles from other movies/games made the strain to push out quality TellTale Games within the few years they were riding in their peak.

[@revcliff]

TWD was definitely a confluence of things all coming together. You mentioned the story and the choices. While there was some of the "pixel hunter" aspects from older games, putting yourself into Lee's shoes really sucked you in to his actual actions. There was tension of running from zombies, beating them down before they bit you, etc. Feeling terrible about deaths just added that emotional investment. But above all else...Clementine. One of the best characters ever written in my opinion. The build up of your emotional investment, watching over her, seeing her grow, then finally getting to be in her shoes and help guide her. By the time the series was over, she was one of those video game characters I simply fell in love with.

[@asherandai1000]

Clementine was a fantastic supporting character for Lee. But after he was gone she just didn't hold up on her own. Personally I think it was because Lee was essentially a blank slate for the player to fill and decide who he was. But Clementine had her own characterisation before we got to play as her, and that just doesn't give the same "in the characters shoes" feeling as a blank slate character does.

[@TheYer290]

Telltale game employees will remember that.

[@espresso21357]

The true dinosaurs extinction God reveals No Gender as we called family god creation God reveals LGBTQ God destroy creation It's not normal called kamma . God reveals is a sin .that no God exist God is dangerous .Animals is a devils reptiles & creatures monster as human it's cannibalism God it's killing lives God never saves lives & dead God protect lives & dead God saves lives & dead Remember ancient history God destroy .Religion is nothing .Emptiness . Suffering like hell that no justices that no heaven & earth God reveals nakedness as sin .It's Godfault creation everything is Nature but we are abondoned to home land and nature God we all fear . God as creation God is nature . God choices reveals lives & dead as punishment Realize a mistake is too late . God destroy home land and nature God create home land and nature That no heaven & earth & space explosion That no cure.God is healer & savior God killed everyone lives as forgiveness sin God punishment for us sin

[@PunkNetrunner]

"Choices that actually mattered" LMAO not. This game gives you the illusion of choice, you don't change the trajectory of the game. That's BS. Exactly what @TheGhostOfTK said

[@Aphelia.]

Haven't watched the video yet but I just wanna say that I was OBSESSED with Minecraft: Story Mode as a kid in 2015. It was heartbreaking to see it turn into lost media because Telltale couldn't host the servers to download the game files anymore.

[@Zvipy]

It's not lost media actually it can very easily be downloaded or pirated online ,both episodes

[@ShockwaveFPSStudios]

It’s even more insane that there’s gonna be a Minecraft Movie, and it wouldn’t adapt Minecraft Story Mode, a game that has story compared to Minecraft.

[@AedraRising]

I'm reasonably certain it's still possible to buy the complete seasons physically.

[@BongoBrando]

I will always have a special place in my heart for TellTale. I vividle remmeber all my friends and I sitting in an xbox party playing the games alongside eachother.

[@cenationofjnu]

Their first walking dead Game was indeed a masterpiece. That was my first time I played such game and I loved it.

[@espresso21357]

It's God fault .God creation as nature God reveals as animals as nakedness God reveals LGBTQ .God reveals.God create is devils . God create home land and nature as haram. We all know the years born lives & dead as creation It's kamma living in this world is Darkness as sin in history God destroy as creation . God never love as creation .

[@SansFilet]

0:45 Missed opportunity to say "to tell this tale"

[@Mr.LeoNov]

"What are we, some kind of suicide squad?" - ahh line

[@IssakLopez]

​@@Mr.LeoNov I gotta say it's fantastic: say that again ahh line

[@13_faces]

Telltale co developed the expanse game that came out last year. They are still producing games with deck nine. The wolf among us 2 is still in production.

[@CottageDreams23]

Fingers cross for TWAU2..

[@owendowling1439]

My experience of what happened was the infamous “(character) will remember that” first it makes you think oh I gotta get on this person’s good side or oh no my favorite character is gonna be torn up by a important decision I made. Nope, none of that ever mattered. They never programmed enough detail for that even matter. The closest thing was in Minecraft story mode episode one where one character if you’re actively mean to them the entire time will smugly dismiss you and move onto a different group at the end of the episode. Realizing that was the only time that mechanic ever mattered really sours the experience of the games.

[@adnox383]

You got the wrong game if you expect moon to explode base off your choices. If you could pay attention to details you'd find that decisions did matter in most cases

[@Mfscallmethedrink]

@@adnox383 no, decisions slightly changed a couple of lines (very little) or very lightly change a couple of scenes (which would end up the same way regardless). Duck will die anyways in TWD, Lee will die, you will get kicked out by hershel etc etc etc etc etc. You just slightly change the conditions in which those things happen. You can chop off Lee's arm. It will have zero influence on his outcome. If you think that is enough for decisions to matter, then your mind would be blown playing games where decisions actually DO matter. Baldur's gate 3 would make you shit your pants. Hell, even stanley's parable would make you go wild. Those games actually adapt entirely to what you do.

[@yoruichixx6951]

@@adnox383 the mass effect trilogy gets depressing super fast if you start killing all of the side characters, so no in telltale games your choices dont matter

[@wakamoon1910]

@@adnox383 way to hyperbole an impossible kind of scenario, it doesn't have to be a hug world breaking effect. just the fact that you can be as mean to the character but they'll still do the same function as if you were nice to them. until dawn shows how its done where certain characters won't do certain actions if you don't build their relationship well or even actually lead to your character to death if its drastically horrible.

[@MatthewSatisfaction]

The wolf among us 2, sadly not out yet seems like a 2025 release instead. 14:21

[@Johnny_BGood]

Fingers crossed, but the lack of updates don't really give much hope for it. Also if I was them, last thing I'd want is to launch right alongside GTAVI so they better hurry

[@MegaMijit]

i miss telltale. they made some of the GREATEST stories EVER told in gaming.

[@soundberry]

The timing of this video, I just played through all of the walking dead (except for michonne) and the wolf among us and I'm obsessed with telltale's games and other choice based story games

[@Aphelia.]

Agreed, telltale was my childhood and their games had a charm like no other

[@Xeno0290]

i hope we get Wolf among us 2 someday and im playing through the walking deads after my friend bought me all 4 to play them since he saw i was playing through all the Life is strange games (cant wait for the new Life is strange later this year)

[@soundberry]

@@Xeno0290 I need to play life is strangs too, I remember watching a playthrough of the first one but I forgot mostly everything, but I have played true colors, because a friend got it for me and I realy liked that one! And I really want to play tales from the borderland when it goes on sale

[@rareben395]

​@@soundberryThe first life is strange is absolutely amazing heavily recommend it. Haven't played the others though.

[@danielcastaneda4975]

All their games have the same outcomes . Only dialogues changes your choices don't matter

[@ilovewagner]

7:11 heres why , the front is just full of yapping

[@zoeynewark9774]

It's always the lost of key people.

[@ilovewagner]

@@zoeynewark9774 what

[@mrsixfoot307]

@@ilovewagnersomething about people losing their keys

[@ilovewagner]

@@mrsixfoot307 ok.... still doesnt know what that means

[@_Zeruca]

I just love the fact the person who made this video can’t say “TellTale” properly over half the time lol

[@tommycavacini3978]

I’m surprised it wasn’t mentioned, but telltale also had a guardians of the galaxy game that def had its moments.

[@olliedeaney8740]

The fact it looks straight out of the comics was always a plus too So much so that every telltale IP after kept that style Wolf among us Batman Minecraft etc

[@RoxYgen03]

A classic story of power milking creativity until death. Congrats on those two for leaving the studio before it was too late. This story was awesome, thank you!

[@noctislucis5862]

I remember playing the final two episodes of The Walking Dead. It felt like a miracle that it was even happening after the studio had closed. The final walk at the end as Clem with the music was very bittersweet. I loved all their games, The Walking Dead. The Wolf Among Us. Tales From the Borderlands. Batman and even Game of Thrones. I was shocked when they were shut down. They deserve a second chance.

[@PanMan47]

They made great games, I miss them

[@Masterho310]

They also made bad games too. The game of thrones game was terrible, as well as the many later seasons of The Walking Dead. For every good game they made like a Walking Dead Season 1 or Wolf Among us you had multiple bad games. It was inevitable that they would close down.

[@Aphelia.]

Even if they didn't make great games, they made iconic games which I respect.

[@specialmnoo]

Right I love their bad games and I love them so much, I hope that they made a lot of games

[@13_faces]

@@Masterho310 the game of thrones game was not terrible you hater

[@Masterho310]

@@13_faces If it was so good why did we not get a season 2 to continue the cliffhanger ending?

[@newdiary6978]

Maan, the writing of the first season of the walking dead is so good, and unpredictable. That's crazy. Well, other seasons were good too but the 1st season for me is the best.

[@landoswallace5168]

Yeah I agree but the quality fell off with each release.

[@kradylladel2785]

In TWD A New Frontier I tried to hard to get Javier to rail the nurse from the airport but there was no option.

[@BiggestDame]

kate on top💪🏽

[@Dharcness]

I was a huge fan of telltale : the walking dead. So much so that when the game wants you to choose between two characters. I stopped and debated with myself on who should i choose. Some time later during the second and third chapters, i realise my choice on whom to choose didn't matter at all. Both characters will still be gone. It dampen my mood on playing later chapters and ultimately i didn't bother playing other telltale : the walking dead games.

[@aclaylambisabirdman6324]

As someone who went to school with many former employees I will tell you that one of their biggest problems was that damn in house engine, and they just started up too many different projects all at once.

[@scrappile5925]

Idk this is the first video I've watched from this channel, but with 456K subs, I was expecting... more to the video? This kind of feels like there wasn't much effort put into really portraying the entirety of the downfall or the actual reasonings the games drop in quality. Telltale really created special moments for a lot of people with their entire legacy.

[@Takeoi]

Hey man video creation is hard. I say he did better than 90% of the channels on the platform. I’ve seen people with 2 million subs make a video with less effort put into it. Also most big KZbinrs pay others to make their editing and engagement of the video feel and look high quality. This guy is most likely just doing this as a hobby

[@BigSmoke-ew5td]

What’s wrong with this video????

[@yummy_the_braix]

this and the overuse of transition sounds were really irritating me by the end.

[@Safarizoned]

Cause the guy is using opinions instead of facts. The walking dead game took off cause walking dead was super popular back then. The fact that the game was good helped tell tale a lot. Also to say tales of borderlands was not good shows he didn’t play it since it’s probs a top 3 tell game. This vid is extended with nonsense. At the end of the day they are licensed games and expensive to use those names. They closed cause it’s unsustainable .

[@danielcastaneda4975]

​@@yummy_the_braixyeah , it's so cringy . They think is so cool and different when is literally a stereotype of ppt movie slide

[@kirasmile580]

The problem is - there was never a real choice in their games. They kept sticking to the diamond formula - all the choices lead to the same outcome. The first WD nailed it because it was innovative at time, so people didn't notice the problem much. But with each next game the key issue was a lack of real choice. Telltale became notoriously famous for that. And that's why I never played anything but the first 2 seasons of WD.

[@gamesthatiplay9083]

This is true about no real choice. Friends had me play the Walking Dead 1 for them and I'd use their choices. Nothing seemed different other than someone that dies or doesn't die comes back later for a brief time.

[@harpknight5817]

YOU TAKE THAT BACK! Monkey Island was a gem! I used to play it with my dad so much. I also feel like youve got the timeline of events mixed up a bit. And with games like Batman and Tales from the Borderlands, in particular, I remember them being very successful and loved.

[@silliconchip]

almost the end of 2024 still no wolf among us season 2

[@DevlinEdora]

Bro you keep saying "taletell" and it's making me feel like a crazy person, i legit keep rewinding to see if I'm mishearing it lmao

[@jc61846]

The skeleton crew that was left behind was actually AFTER the release of Minecraft story mode 2 and the skeleton crew only finished an interactive Netflix adaptation of the first Minecraft story mode. It was Skybound and Robert Kirkman himself that acquired the rights to the final season and offered the Walking Dead Telltale team that was laid off the opportunity to finish the final episodes under the "still not bitten team".

[@svenwalter4293]

Its unfortunate this happened. I love their games particularly their walking dead series. The final season was a banger! Massive shout out to still not bitten team for pushing through to complete the series. I miss em already

[@clementinemarsh476]

so do i 😢 will forever remain my favorite game and definitely touched a lot of people’s hearts, i remember when the fan base was a lot bigger and active

[@MxRez]

i love telltale games the style looks drawn, cartoonish but the game is also very story rich and also lets you choose this is a true masterpiece too bad it all went downhill

[@kileyeast1443]

The telltale style of games meant that yes you can make choices but 90% of their games all end the same with little different details occasionally. A character in TWDG dies whether or not their hand is chopped off and while that ending was very sad and impactful, it showed that the choices were merely an illusion. I love TWDG and while I haven't played their other games, I want to some day but I know for a while I was a huge fan of TWDG without ever playing it because I would watch let's plays.

[@planetearth2631]

Oh yeah i remember that .its sad that the players cant do anything about it .

[@Ethan-cd4lt]

Did you play/ even watch it? Because it’s known that the characters don’t know if it would work ant tbh that’s wayyy more realistic and accurate to what would actually happen

[@ArffaAli]

I played this games all of them when I was younger but I will never forget how much fun it was 😢😢

[@aai404]

4:27 those are not spinoffs. It's literally the continuation of the story

[@MrGreaves]

I very rarely cry at films, shows and games, but I just replayed the first season of The Walking Dead and it had me uncontrollably bawling. It truly is one of the most emotional stories that the gaming industry has ever released. Shame to see how Telltale ended up…

[@SkullSnax]

A big part of what caused Telltale to blow up was just the timing of the right game, the right IP, at the height of The Walking Dead’s popularity, and Wolf Among Us was something new and interesting with meaningful story choices and good writing. I think the problems really started when they expanded. The drop in quality and frequency of releases, combined with the episodic releases and cheaper complete editions led to a buyers culture of “meh, I’ll get to it when it’s finished”, or “I’ll hold out for {insert IP}”. Like don’t forget Netflix and the culture of binge watching really blew up from 2013-2016, so people weren’t really into the TV style episodes and just wanted the whole thing. If they’d have followed a model like Actvision with Call of Duty, rotating teams working on annual releases to give each team more time to write and build the game, if they’d have seen the culture of consuming media changing and started doing bulk season releases, rather than drip feeding content. Imagine what that could have looked like. One team working on Walking Dead, and another team working on new IPs, finding what could be the next long term cash cow. 2012 Walking Dead, 2013 Wolf, 2014 TWD S2, 2015 Borderlands, 2016 TWD S3, 2017 Game of Thrones, 2018 Stranger Things, 2019 Wolf S2. That doesn’t even require much moving around of dates from when they released (or planned to release).

[@dblundz]

I actually really like tales from the borderlands. wished they did a season 2

[@Burstify]

They did but it wasn't developed by Telltale, it was called "New Tales from the Borderlands" it was horrible.

[@Jonitherat172]

New tales was made by a Team from Gear Box, all I heard it was a dumpster fire.

[@Mfscallmethedrink]

they did and nobody cared. It wasn't made by telltale and it didnt have the same cast lol I found that out last year and got shocked that i never heard about it

[@pawjack]

The branching story paths were always illusions though, and it just got more and more obvious. You would chose which character to save in the moment, and then an episode or two later that saved character would die anyway after completely fading from the story because it would have been a lot of work to remake all those different paths. By season 2 of TWD, they just took care of that kind of thing in the same episode. The girl from season 2 can be saved for all of like fifteen minutes before they kill her off anyway. Probably another symptom of the devs being spread so thin.

[@Ethan-cd4lt]

Just because you save someone doesn’t Make them immune

[@rikumajumder1558]

Tales from the Borderlands and Wolf Among Us is still one of my favorite games.

[@turntapeover5749]

Minecraft story mode kinda marked a turning point for a lot of people. I think thats around where telltale lost their soul and while not being quite dead as a company, it certainly started to feel like they were dead inside.

[@addimbantuwe9406]

Telltale games would be infinitely better if they didn’t pretend they’re something they’re not, they’re fixed narratives with some choice based features, but ultimately your choices don’t drastically change the experience, not much more than any other story game. I love a lot of them as stories and if they just embraced what they were they could’ve continued to write great narratives

[@Zyrodil]

My opinion: I really, really liked the Walking Dead season 1 (Telltale), it was really good and when I finished playing it myself, I watched 5 different KZbinrs finish it, too. The problem was that it felt kind of cheaty with how some things were in flux, like some characters were basically doomed to die. However, I still enjoyed the story and didn't mind. I played the second game and I started feeling the same thing, I started "feeling" and "somewhat knowing" when things didn't matter, when the pacing was fake and when I was being set up for a thing I couldn't change. Doesn't matter, I enjoyed the story. Then came Tales of the Borderlands; my god I loved this game, all the way up to Episode 4. I got to the point where a certain someone tries to become a certain someone, and I just said: "Fine, the way I've played the game - this is basically the best outcome for both of us, and also I feel bad for the certain someone." And the game wouldn't let me, the game - no matter what I picked - went against what I wanted and after several reloads I learned that this "certain someone" never was save-able and there was nothing I could do to change this. The moment that ended, it was a huge showdown and whatnot, but I wouldn't have it, I was so disgruntled that I put down my controller and said: "Nothing beyond this point matter, this isn't happening in the story I was playing." And then the most insane shit happened... The Game started doing the inputs for me. Yes, if you leave the controller, if you just don't do the quick time events, the game will just start doing them for you - spamming the button to grab onto a ledge? The game just pauses, nothing happens - at several points the green bar would just fill itself and I didn't need to do anything. And that's when it happened, I realized that my choices truly didn't matter and if the game wanted to, neither did me manually pressing the buttons, all this time I had just been watching a script unfold and my choices meant nothing. I know some games do this, right - Call of Duty ends the same no matter what you do - but this was a game ABOUT choices and just realizing that this is the absolute end to a game - I started seeing it everywhere. When the last Walking Dead game came out, I could see the lies, the branching paths that were actually just a single road, "button prompts to save yourself" - it was all a fucking lie and I'd rather watch a movie at that point.

[@Toshineko]

I believe one of the main reasons why Telltale Games died was because, well, none of the choices you make actually mattered. Sure, you can say different dialogues, but other than that, all of your choices will lead to the same outcome, making these choices meaningless.

[@RedAndBlue82]

Season 1 despite being Telltale best work also wasn't so special (in terms of choices obviously, the characters were amazing) because the only "major change" was your relationship with kenny that depeding on your choices he will hate, be neutral or be best friends with your lee...but outside of that is basically this, no matter if you save doug or carley, they both die no matter what, no matter if you side with lily, she still leaves your lee behind,etc

[@TimDespairBear11]

EXACTLY. The game will always say “Lee will remember that” “clementine will remember that” but it doesn’t mean a damn thing.

[@BigSmoke-ew5td]

No matter what ending you picked at the end of season 2 Clem still ends up alone in season 3

[@alexs1640]

I think that's more so your expectation rather than anything else. The tagline was always "the story is tailored by your choices." Tailored being the optimal word. You don't go into a tailer with a shirt and come out with a suit. Tailors make small fixes and adjustments to existing items. Not create brand new things. Your choices changed how characters felt about you, not what ending you got. Even before I played any of their games, I knew making a branching narrative is extremely hard so I wasn't expecting that in a few gigabyte game. And so I wasn't disappointed because I wasn't expecting an unrealistic scenario.

[@jesseswaggdbz]

@@alexs1640this guy gets it people really overestimate the “tailored stories” I fell in love with tell tale walking dead as a kid when it first came out and I’m still deeply invested hoping we get that feeling back

[@HiroshimaXl]

I didn't mind the batman games. It was cool getting to choose what kind of batman you wanted to play as, and the choices seemed at least somewhat meaningful

[@bskilla4892]

Choices NEVER mattered since there was always narrative convergence.

[@ashesfrombones]

"Meteoric Rise..." that's a very funny description, because meteor only fall

[@snake5solid]

Problem with Telltale was that choices didn't actually matter that much. It would alter a story a bit but that's all. Plus some things just didn't make sense. Like in Walking Dead 2 an 11 year old girl being a "leader" and the brain of the group of adults. It's ridiculous to think that during a literal zombie apocalypse adults will be looking at a child for guidance.. On top of that they were releasing games that were not yet finished and people had to wait months for one episode to drop.

[@Jammet]

The telltale formula worked quite well and I would have played more of the "same" no problem. Endlessly. I'm glad some of them still are around, the Star Trek Resurgence game is great! The best Telltale game is, Tales from the Borderlands, one of the rushed ones, if you ask me. And the reason why The Walking Dead sequel games weren't working out anymore, was that the TV show itself was in a freefall decline.

[@nekilik7886]

This came out just as I'm playing TWD games. They're interesting to play through but you notice over time your choices really don't matter. I wish there were a few different paths you could go with different endings instead of it all being the same. But it's still fun regardless.

[@jmgonzales7701]

I wish they added more variety to their games like i like the story and all that but for example i never liked quick time events as their basis for action. Hope they learn from it and add more variety. like for example batman, I'm asking too much if they turned it into arkham free flow combat but i wish they get more creative with the action sequences.

[@clementinemarsh476]

@@jmgonzales7701they put you in quick time events to stimulate you and make you feel like you’re actually in that situation so you’re under pressure, if it wasn’t timed it’d be boring to weigh out the consequences and have unlimited amounts of time, it’s unrealistic

[@jmgonzales7701]

@@clementinemarsh476 It could be innovated in other ways. Not simply a push button.

[@lucas14saccone]

I’ve replayed the walking dead games multiple times at this point, definitely one of my favorite game series of all time. I felt like they wrapped that saga up pretty well, but I kinda wish telltale or some other company would make a new walking dead game with different characters and a new storyline, I’d 100% buy that

[@Neelesh144]

seems like telltale is the best example of "your comfort zone is your coffin"... but this is admiring... a group of 3 aspiring devs started a company that wants to tell an emotion instead of never ending crunchy action with blasted music and it actually worked until they started repeating the same formula again and again... the walking dead is the best gaming franchise for me that actually made me want to create games... create games that actually narrate a story... carry player through the ride of emotional rollercoaster... sad to see them fall like this... i would love to give the OG founders another chance to revive telltale

[@michaelstoecker9761]

I was shocked when I finished the video and went to the comments to realize I just watched a RoboKast video. I used to watch your Unturned videos all the time when I was younger. I'm so happy to see you move on and continue producing great content. Much love

[@muhaimenalnaas2498]

Its kinda sad that you forgot to mention Guardians of the Galaxy, one of the best Telltale games and one of my favorites, a game where your choices really matter

[@Dreadjaws]

I have to disagree about Jurassic Park here. Most people who have played it agree that the story is by far the best part. The problem with that particular game was, well, the gameplay, or lack thereof. The exploration/puzzle part was as basic as they come, and then the rest of the game was plagued by constant, uninspired and outright broken QTEs. The writing in the game was _not_ the issue.

[@omarmajed3673]

4:27 not spin offs they are sequels

[@Rand0m1nance]

Yea

[@Martell_Dog]

"Tales from the Borderlands" is also a great game with quite memorable characters, and should be mentioned along TWD 1 and The Wolf among Us as their top releases. But the time between the episode releases increased and it made a lot of people to lose the initial interest.

[@MistahJay7]

Batman Season 2 is Telltales Masterpiece to me and best game they've made.

[@iiLitez]

Batman S2 is way too under-appreciated, I agree it’s probably the best game Telltale has made. The choices impacted the story a lot more than other TT games and a few of those endings depending on your choices were just so heavy. Honestly made me wanna do another playthrough of it.

[@FreshNettles]

Man, the walking dead is a staple in my library. I stream the whole series every October including right now..Just finished episode 3 of season. I will probably continue this ritual until I die..smh..

[@theblueabyss63]

The amount of impact Lucasarts/film have had is seriously impressive not to mention both pixar and THX oh and of course ILM

[@Fer-mh6qe]

i dont think a game engine need to be upgraded, sure most people would love to see a better graphics on their PC but think of it as a signature of telltale just like ghibli studio do with their movies, i have to agree with most of the story is just so predictable but its always replayable for me who enjoy interactive drama games. its just so sad they have to close their studio i would love to see them making another walking dead game like they used to

[@Tommy-bd2wq]

The wolf among us and Batman are amazing. I wish batman could get another season

[@prisonmike3605]

Batman definitely deserves a 3rd season. Hell even Guardians of The Galaxy does too. Very underrated imo

[@jmgonzales7701]

@@prisonmike3605 I wish they added more variety to their games like i like the story and all that but for example i never liked quick time events as their basis for action. Hope they learn from it and add more variety. like for example batman, I'm asking too much if they turned it into arkham free flow combat but i wish they get more creative with the action sequences.

[@prisonmike3605]

@@jmgonzales7701 like Detroit become human

[@jmgonzales7701]

@@prisonmike3605 maybe something rts

[@TheSimper-gw3kl]

​@@jmgonzales7701 stop spamming this damn comment

[@MistaWind]

Man, TellTale games was incredible at the time. I would literally show all of my friends and past girlfriends these games and honestly I still show people these games to this day. And then after the walking dead final season, the only itch that fixed that TellTale craving were just a few outstanding games like: Until Dawn, Detroit Become Human, Life Is Strange and the Dark Pictures Anthology Games. I do dearly miss waiting in anticipation for the next part of a telltale game, it was always something so exciting to look forward too.

[@SinisterFears]

Hopefully The Wolf Among Us 2 will show us that the mistakes were learned from. I would love if we actually got drastically different endings depending on the choices this time.

[@TheAnthery]

Damn management can't let go of their ego and overworks and oppresses their creatives to where they leave, thus ruining the company? Who could have ever seen this coming.

[@Dramn_]

at a bit less than 2 minutes, I literally just almost died at that guy facechecking a t-rex

[@rjmichalski7172]

I remember your unturned days. It's amazing to see how far you've come

[@ProfessorLooney95]

The wolf among us was a huge game changer for me. Followed by the Tele tale borderlands but in the Tele tale none of the choices made any real differences

[@Nyinxie]

I miss Tell Tale, I am willing to give them another chance, although personally i didnt see anything wrong with their games

[@dreamguardian8320]

I did not see anything wrong with their games either. Game of Thrones was might most favorite game to play. I for one found it better than the TV series.

[@akenohononiku916]

I think the current biggest issue people find with Telltale is that they say your choices create the story, but that isn't that true Your choices affect the flavor text later on, but for the plot? Which is the story? Not really, usually People especially found this problem egregious with TWD Season two's ending The idea was so fascinating How would the story be different from these three vastly different settings? How would they continue it? Will Clem meet new people for each of these paths? Does the story branch out like crazy now? So many high expectations And then people were disappointed that Telltale just made each setting for each ending result in the same way The people Clem decide to stay with dies, she runs, she's alone, continue story People were really excited to see where their choices will take them And then the continuation happened and we were all disappointed that they went thr route of "lazy writing" It's too much to make multiple different settings and in the same vein, multiple different storylines Nah, let's just clunkily force an unstoppable conflict to make all the endings branch back to one outcome again, so we only have to make one storyline It's really lazy and highly disappointing considering telltale is advertised that your choices really do matter And it just doesn't They might as well have made a basic visual novel and almost nothing of value would be lost Season 1 is still great though, but that's more of a better overall writing than the Telltale formula actually being good

[@DarknessProphet]

Loved Walking Dead. I liked Wolf Among Us even more, but when I replayed it and made the opposite of every original choice, I essentially got the same ending. The illusion was lost and so was all interest.

[@rb0675]

If they just focused on one project at a time they would have succeeded. The issue from it all was management. These games had the opportunity to revolutionise the adventure game genre, but management were incompetent and impatient

[@lazyafterdark]

The walking dead final season was broken on launch and would skip entire sections of gameplay. Not to mention skipping over new engine and stranger things, lotta key things missing from why the games were failing. Can’t really blame the community for not buying their broken games

[@gamesthatiplay9083]

You've sold me on playing it. I've owned it for years, and I've played the others, but never had a desire to play the final game. Felt like the game peaked for me at 400 Days.

[@lazyafterdark]

@ I’m not sure if it got fixed later on or not. I remember trying to record a let’s play and suddenly everyone hated clementine and AJ. I had to look it up on KZbin to see I missed a 5 minute sequence that skipped a choice and auto filled it. I loved the season with Javier the most personally

[@The_Immortals-MainYT]

I want a Minecraft Story mode Season 3 but with new characters and a new story. The New Order of the Stones, story is done

[@Binnu_Chauhan_]

I still love Telltale games . I hope one day they gonna come back and shock the gaming world .

[@notcyro]

telltale did good job on giving choices to the players these days all dipshit story game gives u more questions as options

[@dargostvolos614]

Teltale games has always been one of my fav kinda game.. been waiting for the next wolf game

[@Dommie222]

Because we barely got to play Clementine in season 3; thats why

[@Xanderlorian]

I remember playing the minecraft story mode season 2 and feeling like it wasnt just a goodbye to the series but a farewell from telltale. The ending of walking dead also felt like a goodbye from that team

[@Splifs420]

I didn’t know that the studio went belly up it’s honestly sad because they could make a infinite amount of games styled like 400 days it doesn’t have to be about clementine it could be anyone who survived thus far it’s honestly sad they could have went so far

[@Splifs420]

I’ve played up to new frontier and new frontier I didn’t really like the first 2 where the best and the passion is still there for the walking dead games about the WALKING DEAD why release something that’s nishe like Batman the walking dead everyone can like but Batman is not really it idk

[@clementinemarsh476]

i agree!! it’d be so fun to play as kenny right when the apocalypse started and see what happened to him and kat before they got on the farm, or have them make new characters for stories, we could see so many people’s backstory this way, like molly (even seeing what happened to her after she left), carly, chuck, ben, and i would love to play a story of the downfall of Ericson’s Boarding School, the tidbits we hear from the kids are crazy!

[@Splifs420]

@@clementinemarsh476 to see the downfall of Crawford!!!

[@ShockwaveFPSStudios]

It’s kinda a tragedy that Telltale went bankrupt. While not all of their games are the best, I still have fond memories of playing their work. I still prefer their Walking Dead games over the AMC series… Tales from the Borderlands will always be my favorite Borderlands game, I think John Doe’s my favorite take on the Joker, Minecraft Story Mode is good and anyone who says the game’s bad are wrong, I had fun playing the first Poker Nights game, Back to the Future the game was a solid conclusion to to the Series, and if it weren’t for Telltale I wouldn’t have gotten into Sam & Max.

[@_hamzah23]

There are many things that I disagree with in this video: The way you portrayed Tales from the Borderlands made it seem like an underwhelming game while in fact it was critically acclaimed by fans and critics Also even though season 2 from TWD wasn't an improvement over the 1st season, it's still an excellent game that lived up to the hype, it was just so hard for it to be better than the 1st season due to how over the top that game was and Finally I think that you should've went more into the games themselves rather than simply stating "the quality fell off" coz for example the decision to change the story of TWD in season 3 and make Javier the protagonist and make the story focus on him rather than clem wasn't a welcomed choice by anyone, GOT had problems with players not familiar with the tv show having a lack of context of whats going on... and so on.

[@lamenoma5395]

yeah the way he talked about TFTBL as if it's a mid game REALLY pissed me off

[@bummer7736]

i played all four seasons and loved it all, i was genuinely curious as to how it became repetitive/copy paste.

[@AN-kb4kh]

Robocast seems to have changed gears, I really don't like the overly critical view he is taking of games and developers. This channel is slowly turning into a tabloid

[@Aphelia.]

THANK YOU exactly my thoughts.

[@danielallred4806]

Being a fan who discovered the original Monkey Island games including the latest one and loves all of them (even the fourth one), I was less than impressed with the approach to Tales of Monkey Island and I’m glad to see that Telltale was able to find their identity and find success later. But, this is definitely a sad story of corporate greed.

[@ethanmyers4882]

The game of thrones tell tale was slept on, I really wish we could’ve got a second game of that I throughly enjoyed that and every game I played of theirs Batman could’ve been improved but none of these were “bad” maybe Jurassic park

[@9xprincess]

I would love to have them continue the Forestter story from Game of Thrones. Maybe even make a House of the Dragon video game.

[@Backdrop-c1p]

I legit just finished playing the walking dead season 1 today and I’m hooked 😂

[@UrExtremeGamer]

Lucky you 😅, I wish I could forget the games and play them all over again😂. Enjoy the rest of the seasons🔥.

[@Backdrop-c1p]

@@UrExtremeGamer If you don’t play walking dead blindly, well the experience gets destroyed unfortunately

[@SottoMarcus]

I swear I played this game 5 months ago, and I still remember every single moment of it

[@siddharththampi5383]

I feel another big reason for their depart has to be gameplays. Unlike other games where you’re left fascinated by the environment and what you get to do as a player, interacting with the world sense… Telltale largely amplifies on its story telling skills. You watch someone play it on KZbin and you’ve basically played the game

[@Daniel-ie2dm]

I don't get why people aren't ok with the same thing with slight differences here, yet will buy the same Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Fifa, etc yearly. I personally think these change more than enough compare to those.

[@zxylo786]

Because people don't buy fucking Fifa for the promise of different endings to the plot and consequences for getting into someone's bad side??? What kind of opinion even is this?

[@Daniel-ie2dm]

@@zxylo786 let me guess, your a fifa drone? You waste your money every year buying the same game?

[@clementinemarsh476]

you are so right, i keep seeing comments saying “bUt tHe chOiCes nEvER reAlLy mAtTered” telltale will always hold a special place in my heart and the stories they made were amazing

[@clementinemarsh476]

people don’t really gravitate towards choice games i feel… and everyone in the comments bitching don’t understand how truly difficult it would be to make a multi season game and have all the story lines be different, i 100% agree that i think it’d be cool and wish it was a possibility but considering how much time and money already go into these games it would just take so much time… and there was once a huge demand for these games keep in mind! from what i remember my choice do “matter” at the end of TWD Michonne because it was a one season game, and they “mattered” in the last season of TWDG because it was the end (until Tilly Walden’s disgrace of a comic Clementine came out which I don’t consider cannon at all) if my choices “mattered” at the end of season 2 i would have been thrilled that kenny lived and i was with him in season 3 but it didn’t happen, i was upset yes but still played the games because i love them and the storylines they have are amazing, also side note *SPOILERS* if lee didn’t die in season 1 the game wouldn’t have NEARLY as big of an impact on the people who played and watched gameplays, i wish he wouldn’t have died either but that’s the thing about great story telling, it’s real and it’s emotional

[@thedragonskull1065]

I began my KZbin channel around the time the second Walking Dead season was in development. The first season was my first lets play and it got a lot of view despite my poor streaming quality. I wouldn't have gotten that far if it weren't for Telltale games. I do want to play more of their games in the future like season 2 of The Wolf Among Us, maybe a season 3 of Minecraft Story Mode and Batman as well. I even liked their Guardians of the Galaxy game even when most people didn't.

[@MrChase-]

I thoroughly enjoyed all telltale games with the only exception being Batman.

[@TY-km8hj]

Really? I played the batman games just a couple yrs ago and quite liked them, they acc reminded me of why I enjoyed telltale games when I was younger. I also found them ti not be as linear as some of the previous TT games

[@MrChase-]

@@TY-km8hj To be fair I am not a fan of Batman, let alone any superhero which is probably why I couldn't get into it in the first place.

[@Aphelia.]

​@@MrChase-that's understandable

[@TY-km8hj]

@@MrChase- ahhh fairs that makes sense

[@Earth12181]

The most creative and fresh version of batman and the joker version to ever exist!! Telltale really nailed it!! Imo

[@wacuumcleanerdealer9410]

This video is so good. Played Twd and after the release of batman lost interest and jumped to The dark pictures anthology.

[@SianaGearz]

You describe Sam&Max and Tales of Monkey Island as sort of mediocre stale games. No, they're pretty good; i mean sure they're mostly running gags but that's a feature, not a bug. What they aren't though is mass market, they only ever had niche appeal. The "formula" games that came out after Walking Dead also have different spins on the formula. Comedic titles such as Tales of Borderlands and Guardians of the Galaxy do not put you in front of actual life and death situations, they merely give you branching story paths culminating in different sets of jokes; and the countdown timer input mechanic, while mechanically identical, serves a completely different purpose, instead of putting pressure and activating fight or flight instincts, it serves to maintain comedic timing. Then again these two feel like they could almost be the same game. With Batman, the quality declined somewhat fierce though. Like it just feels jank and doesn't make sense. The words Batman says don't correspond to what the choices seem like are a lot of the time severely out of character and nonsensical, the QTEs have random nonsensical input combinations, the engine just stalls all the time, animation doesn't look right, Batman shuffles in place on invisible obstacles. The problem wasn't that there was more of the same, indeed he game introduced the innovative Gambit mechanic, it's just that the execution quality was so much worse than you'd come to expect from this company.

[@jmgonzales7701]

I wish they added more variety to their games like i like the story and all that but for example i never liked quick time events as their basis for action. Hope they learn from it and add more variety. like for example batman, I'm asking too much if they turned it into arkham free flow combat but i wish they get more creative with the action sequences.

[@marvelshooter]

I hate that we’ll never get a game of thrones season 2. I love that game and it was left with a permanent cliffhanger

[@dreamguardian8320]

If we never get it back, they could at least start over with House of the Dragon. But it still won't be the same. Iron from Ice ⚔❄