LogFAQs > #909368982

Episode two of The Final Season was originally slated to release this week on September 25, and Kotaku has already received a preview code for it. Telltale has not confirmed that the game will still come out on the same schedule, but it seems likely according to the sources reached by Kotaku. Melissa Hutchison, voice actor for Walking Dead heroine Clementine, wrote in a statement: To my knowledge, they will release Episode 2 and then that will be it. She also gave her condolences to everyone at Telltale, writing, I have met and made some of the very best friends I will have in this life, and that is priceless.

Im in a weird place as lead episode designer, Buck wrote, because I want you to play it! At the same time, she pointed out that companies dont make games, the people who work at them do, and now the team who made episode two wont be around to benefit from any success it might find. The team did awesome work, pushed boundaries, and I want you to see it! Send us off on a high note! But Im not gonna tell you to buy it.

This disconnect between the commitment of Telltale employees to the studios grueling project deadlines and the sudden way in which the studio severed that relationship has inspired a renewed debate within the video game industry and gaming community about crunch, workers rights, and unionization.

Game Workers Unite, an activist organization that seeks to unionize the video game industry, put out a scathing letter on Saturday in response to the circumstances by which Telltales employees were let go. The executives at Telltale are incompetent. They are exploitative. They knew that this was coming and failed to warn anybody, the letter alleged. Unionization cant fix Telltale after the fact, but it could have prevented so much of the damage to countless workers lives by ensuring benefits like severance pay and healthcare that lasts from job to job.

According to Buck, at least one employee had joined Telltale only one week before the closure and had relocated across the country to do so. Another was a foreign national in the country on a work visa who must now leave within a few days. While none of those laid off are being given severance, contract workers who werent full time wont even be able to collect unemployment.

Telltale Games did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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...I think I'm done here...