PewDiePie slams TellTale Games for sudden closure
YouTube’s most-subscribed creator, Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg, criticized The Walking Dead developers TellTale Games for their sudden closure.
The studio released a statement through their Twitter account that announced a ‘majority studio closure,’ which laid off a total of 225 employees – reportedly without severance. Just 25 of their crew currently remain, working on Netflix’s Minecraft series.
PewDiePie took issue with this shutdown and expressed sympathy for the studio’s employees, some of whom had relocated cross-country for their positions.
“How crazy is that?,” he asked. “Way to keep people in the dark… yes, it sucks that a lot of people lost their jobs, but if this is how [TellTale] treats their employees anyway, then I’m sure they’re going to be better off.”
He also stated that he was ‘disappointed’ in the Walking Dead series, feeling that the quality of TellTale’s games had gone downhill in recent years.
“I’m upset,” he admitted. “I’m pissed off… they made too many games instead of focusing on their really good ones.”
He likewise mourned the death of popular series The Wolf Among Us, stating that fans would never see its return due to “bad decisions.”
In addition, Kjellberg criticized the games’ illusion of choice, explaining that while players felt they might have a hand in the games’ outcomes, each TellTale title would end the same way, despite their decisions.
He speculated that the reason for TellTale’s shutdown was likely due to this very reason, with players declining to purchase their titles because their actions had no true consequences in-game.
“I’m so confident that things could have gone differently.”
Many developers have since reached out to offer jobs to TellTale’s laid-off employees, providing a ray of hope in the midst of their unfortunate circumstances – but the issue remains a sore one, as Pewdiepie has noted.