Telltale Games Rises From the Dead. But Will It Be the Same?

Months after Telltale Games abruptly shut down, the studio behind the critically-lauded video game series including The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us is—just as surprisingly—making its return.

In an announcement made Wednesday morning, Telltale revealed that holding company LCG Entertainment and other investors had purchased the company’s assets and intellectual property “with the intent of re-releasing select games from the studio’s back catalog and developing new games in some of the company’s best-selling brands.”

Telltale Games launched in 2004 and was shuttered in Sept. 2018, after garnering critical acclaim for its narrative-driven titles.

“We believe there is still so much life to the brand and its franchises, and we look forward to building upon the company’s storytelling legacy,” Jamie Ottilie, the new Telltale’s CEO, said in a statement.

Despite sharing its name with the original outfit and retaining some of its assets, the relaunched Telltale is a very different company than its previous incarnation.

For one, the staff that was laid off—notably without warning or severance—won’t necessarily be returning.

The new Telltale says it is focussing on creating new video games, rather than continuing the projects that were dropped amid the original company’s closure.

Telltale’s announcement didn’t specifically address titles it had been working on with Netflix, which has since gotten into gaming, itself. It has been reported that the studio was working on a Stranger Things game for Netflix when it disbanded in 2018, and an interactive Minecraft series it produced made it to the streaming service in Nov. 2018.

According to Telltale, “the new company will be based on a streamlined structure with plans for strategic growth and a focus on its core and new [intellectual property].” Details on many of Telltale’s existing franchises were unclear, saying news would be announced in coming weeks, along with further details on the catalog’s reissue.

But Telltale did reveal it will be publishing Batman: A Telltale Story, Batman: The Enemy Within, The Wolf Among Us, Puzzle Agent, Puzzle Agent 2, Hector: Badge of Carnage, and RGX Showdown.

Licenses to some games series Telltale worked on, like The Walking Dead, have returned to their respective publishers, CNET has reported.

Fans of the game studio quickly celebrated the news across social media, calling it a revival. Time—and Telltale’s new games—will tell if that’s correct.