After the news hit on September 21st that Telltale Games had laid off much of its staff and was preparing to close, I could already see the delisting dominos beginning to fall. The studio has made a living since 2005 by turning licensed properties into adventure games, but what I didn’t expect was that the first casualty after the announcement would be their latest release.
The Walking Dead: The Final Season was scheduled to be another episodic installment in the franchise running through 2018. But after launching on August 14th with episode one the game was removed from sale on the day of episode two’s debut, September 25th. The episode (and the season pass) appear to be available on Nintendo Switch and from Humble Bundle but the game has been removed from sale on Steam, GOG.com, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
In a note on the page for the game, GOG.com simply adds that “Telltale has requested a temporary pause of sales of The Walking Dead – Final Season. For all up to date Telltale news, please refer to their official Twitter page”. That account has yet to be updated but in a post on September 24th Telltale revealed that “multiple potential partners have stepped forward to express interest in helping to see The Final Season through to completion”. The sudden delisting gives the remaining staff at Telltale time to work with a new publisher and arrange a schedule for release, if a deal is ever made. Sadly, an unfinished season of one of Telltale’s most popular series is likely to be their legacy at this point.
Shortly before Telltale announced their plans to close, one of their other titles was delisted. On September 14th, Poker Night 2 was removed from sale with Telltale themselves outlining the reason. “Poker Night 2 has been withdrawn from sale on digital platforms due to the expiration of our digital distribution agreement,” reads the statement on their support page. “We currently do not have any plans to renew this agreement.”
The Walking Dead: The Final Season and Poker Night 2 will be added to the site soon with many, many more titles to follow as their IP licenses expire.