TheDaniBethea
Telltale’s The Walking Dead will reach its final conclusion with Robert Kirkman’s own Skybound Studios taking charge. For fans of the gaming franchise, the news almost feels like opening an early Christmas present. Skybound announced that they shall oversee the development and publishing of the game. In addition, their goal is to keep the original Telltale team intact to complete the season.
“We’ve successfully negotiated with Telltale Games for our company Skybound to come in and see Season 4 of the Telltale game to completion,” Kirkman told an audience at New York Comic-Con Saturday night. “We can’t lose Andrew Lincoln and Clementine in the same year.”
Telltale’s controversial and sudden firing of its 274 employees rocked the gaming world a few weeks back when its potential financial investors walked away from the studio. A former employee also filed a lawsuit on behalf of the fellow complainant employees, on the grounds that Telltale Games violated the state of California and federal labor laws with the massive layoff due to improper notice. Rely on Horror Staff Member Rourke Keegan followed and outlined the roller-coaster story here and here.
Skybound Entertainment was created by Robert Kirkman in 2010 to fund the development of traditional and new media properties, such as television, films, video games, and digital media. Skybound’s sister company Skybound Games was created to aid its potential IP’s transition into video games. They’re also presently at work with OVERKILL on co-op FPS OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead.
Nothing has been finalized at this time, such as release dates, pricing, availability, or whether the former Telltale staff will be employed full-time or on a contract basis. We also don’t know if Skybound’s deal includes doing right by the 250+ former employees who were unceremoniously fired without warning or severance pay. But we’ll keep our fingers crossed that things pan out smoothly for The Walking Dead’s curtain call.
