According to an exclusive Variety report, Telltale games, famous for their narrative-focused adventure games, is going to ditch their proprietary game engine in favour of the Unity engine. The move will come after the fourth and final season of The Walking Dead game, making it the last title to use the Telltale Tool engine.
Variety cites sources, depicting much more than just a technical switch of the primarily used game engine but also mismanagement, failure to pursue sure-fire hit game pitches and a hostile work environment. Very harsh allegations indeed.
This feature article doesn’t look that unbelievable though when one considers events that unfolded in the recent years at the game studio. In September last year in an attempt to restructure the company into a successful one, a new CEO was appointed with Pete Hawley after studio co-founder and then-CEO Kevin Bruner was ousted. Layoffs followed the management change and a few weeks ago Bruner even sued his old company. An ugly situation.
Bruner’s replacement came as a result of steady subpar releases, commercially and technically. The once in high regards held studio quickly fell victim to seemingly rushed game releases.
“The poor decision-making by upper management aligns with Telltale hitting a slump. “The Walking Dead: Season 2” and “The Wolf Among Us” were the last homeruns for Telltale. The studio started to accelerate development and became poor at predicting success.”
But not only human errors are being painted as reasons for Telltale games rapid decline in quality and success. Variety also cites the tools used by the game developers as having become a hindrance in creating state-of-the-art games.
“The engine was causing its own share of struggles. It wasn’t getting any better, leading to development challenges and performance problems. Insiders suggest that between technical problems and “Telltale Fatigue,” the studio’s last three releases, “Minecraft Story Mode: Season 2,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “Batman: The Enemy Within” are some of the worst-performing games the studio ever launched.”
Despite all this news about problems at Telltale, it seems that under new CEO Pete Hawley many of the problems are already solved or are in the process of. For customers enjoying Telltale’s games, the shift to the Unity engine is a good one as well. After all, Unity is a very modern engine used by enthusiasts and professionals alike all over the world, making it a solid upgrade over the aged and simply no longer sufficient in-house Telltale Tool engine.
Multiple sources also tell Variety that the days are numbered for Telltale Tool, the company’s in-house game engine. The studio is shifting to Unity for its projects, with the final season of “The Walking Dead” the last to premiere on the old engine. “Stranger Things” is slated to be the first Unity engine project, according to multiple sources.
Fans of the Walking Dead games don’t need to worry about delays though, since The Walking Dead – The Final Season is still set for an August release this year under the old engine.
