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Telltale Games: More 'The Walking Dead' episodes on the way?
On Friday Telltale Games abruptly shut down, laying off most of its employees without warning. The studio was in the midst of wrapping up the Final Season of its The Walking Dead series, and tomorrow will release the second of four scheduled episodes. Fans who may have already purchased a season pass for all of the episodes have no word if they'll ever see the light of day. Earlier today, in a statement to Polygon, Netflix confirmed rumors that Telltale is still finishing Minecraft: Story Mode, which accounts for the remaining employees. Tonight, the game company's Twitter account posted that things might not be over for The Walking Dead, and said that "Multiple potential partners have stepped forward to express interest in helping to see The Final Season through to completion. While we can't make any promises today, we are actively working towards a solution that will allow episodes 3 and 4 to be completed and released in some form. In the meantime, episode 2 will be released tomorrow across all platforms as planned." The series has been popular over the years, and it seems sensible that there would be interest in finishing it properly. However, given the company's recent issues and then out of the blue shutdown, it's hard to trust that we'll see more of these games ever without more concrete information. Only time will tell if this interest turns into anything, which is a tough spot to be in for gamers who've already paid for the content, not to mention former workers suddenly twisting in the wind without severance or benefits -- would any revenue from future episodes end up in their pockets to make up for missing severance or benefits? According to one former employee, there were people who had started there just in the last week, including one who had moved across the country for a job.
'The Wolf Among Us' season two delayed into 2019
It has been nearly four years since The Wolf Among Us wrapped up its original episodic run, but fans will have to wait a bit longer for a follow-up. Telltale Games announced that season two is delayed from its original late-2018 release window into 2019 due to "a few fundamental changes here at Telltale since we first announced the game last summer." As Eurogamer notes, this could refer to layoffs last year that cut its staff by 25 percent, even though at the time, the studio stated that upcoming releases including The Wolf Among Us season two would not be affected.
Telltale's 'Batman' game does Bruce Wayne justice
Batman comics excel when they dive into the psyche of Bruce Wayne. The moody billionaire is conflicted by his desire to be a good person while protecting Gotham by any means necessary. How much force is excessive? Where do you draw the line? It's easy for the Caped Crusader to lose sight. Bruce is also a genius, capable of unraveling the most complex mysteries. Watching him scour the city and piece together a supervillain's plot is as rewarding for the reader as seeing the Dark Knight foil it with fists.
'Hitman' will take you to Morocco on May 31st
Where do you go after murdering the French fashion scene and defending the art of assassination in Italy? For Agent 47, the hired killer that defines the Hitman games, that's up to his handlers -- and on May 31st, they're sending him to Morocco.
'Hitman' blows his cover next week on PlayStation 4
The cold, calculated killer known only as Agent 47 returns to do what he does best sooner than we thought. That's assuming you have a PlayStation 4 and have pre-ordered the next game starring the cloned assassin, of course. While it might be going a different direction in terms of structure (multi-season, downloadable and episodic versus a traditional retail release), publisher Square Enix is sadly clinging to old methods of promo.
Alone in the Dark to bite TV formula
Eden Games has decided to adopt an episodic format for its next-gen horror sequel, Alone in the Dark. The game will be chopped into episodes, each containing 30–40 minutes of gameplay that ends with a cliffhanger and a preview of things to come. In addition, each episode will be preceded by a brief video summary of previous events. Eden is hoping that this format, popularized by TV dramas, will get players "permanently hooked."Rather than digitally distribute each episode, the entire "season" with be packaged onto one disk. Players are free to play through multiple episodes in one sitting, but the idea is to approach the game in short bouts, as if following a weekly television series.It's different than what we've seen in most contemporary adventure games, which tend to mimic feature films, but Alone in the Dark is still biting from an established format. With that said, does the game industry need to stop holding the hands of the film and television industries and step, alone, into the dark?
