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Telltale Games, creators of episodic adventure games like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Batman: The Enemy Within, laid off approximately 250 employees today as part of what the company is calling a "majority studio closure." According to multiple sources The Verge spoke with, employees were let go with no severance.
"Today Telltale Games made the difficult decision to begin a majority studio closure following a year marked by insurmountable challenges," the company said in a statement. "A majority of the company's employees were dismissed earlier this morning." The company will retain a small team of 25. These remaining employees will stay on "to fulfill the company's obligations to its board and partners," according to Telltale.
The final season of Telltale's award-winning series, The Walking Dead, kicked off last month. The second episode is slated to launch next week. Staff were informed of the layoffs today and were given roughly 30 minutes to leave the building, according to one source.
Telltale Games is also behind the new Sam & Max games, Tales of Monkey Island, the Back to the Future game, and Minecraft: Story Mode.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Sunday September 23 2018, @06:58AM (9 children)
Why did employees get only 30 minutes notice? There was a time when 2 weeks notice, or at least 2 weeks severance pay, was the norm. I wonder, were employees paid for the most recent work they had done, or is this yet another case of employees being screwed out of their last month of pay? How long was management aware of this impending shutdown? Surely longer than a day. Evidently they decided to pretend everything was fine, keep the troops in the dark. Maybe they gambled on the extremely long odds that a huge jump in sales would magically happen and give them the cash flow to continue operations for another year. Quite possibly another crappy thing they did was have the troops engaged on a 1099 basis rather than as official employees, so that no one can get any unemployment either. Forget Management 101, management needs to go back to elementary school and learn some basic manners!
If they think throwing everyone out on such short notice will stop theft and sabotage, and make them safe from resentment and revenge, they are very much wrong. There seems no good reason for such haste. What if someone took longer than 30 minutes, did guards forcibly remove them? Were they arrested for trespassing?
(Score: 1) by NateMich on Sunday September 23 2018, @08:05AM (6 children)
If that actually happened, then this would be news.
Otherwise, everything else that was done is pretty standard. They gave them 30 minutes to pack up their shit and leave.
If they told all the staff "we're shutting down in two weeks", you'd have everyone fucking around for days and possibly sabotaging things.
Two weeks is the norm for you telling an employer that you're leaving, but that isn't any kind of requirement.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by rleigh on Sunday September 23 2018, @09:21AM (4 children)
I know that "sabotage" and whatnot are often thrown around as the reason for this callous behaviour, but is that the primary reason?
I've been laid off twice, most recently a couple of months back. The first time, back in '99 I got a few weeks notice. This time, I had three months notice. I carried on working as normal until the end date, then left after a goodbye lunch at a local restaurant with the boss and all my colleagues. This is in the UK, by the way. While being let go is annoying, I've never yet seen anyone do anything nefarious before they left. In some cases, where entire businesses have shut down, the management have been extremely generous in helping their employees get new training and work and redundancy payments well above and beyond what would be required by law.
(Score: 4, Informative) by crafoo on Sunday September 23 2018, @07:10PM
What's it like living in civilization? Much worse treatment seems to be the norm over here in the USA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @12:53AM
"This is in the UK, by the way."
Egads, I think I see why your experience is different!
(Score: 2) by SunTzuWarmaster on Monday September 24 2018, @11:53AM
TFS mentions it because it is, in fact, rare. Our building is going through some ...changes... at the moment, and we're having a pretty serious exodus (including 50% of the exec leadership). Majority of people have received greater than 2 months notice (I can only think of one guy that got 2 weeks, and he was a part time $10/hour person, not a six-figure person). A basic rundown would be:
- Exec Leader #1 - got 4+ months notice, retirement ceremony for spending 35 years at the company, gift collection, 6 months severance pay, job placement program, reeducation credit, and some other stuff.
- Exec Leader #2 - left voluntarily, gave about 2.5 months notice. Spent 30 years at the company, gift collection, retirement "roasting", retirement ceremony, retirement lunch. Notably doubled his pay working for the new company.
- IT guy - left voluntarily, gave 4 weeks notice, didn't want a lunch or whatever.
- Project Manager - job eliminated, company gave him 3 months of notice. 30ish years at the company. Gift collection, retirement ceremony.
- Part time intern - 2 weeks of notice, no pomp/circumstance (who was that guy?)
- Remote scientist/engineer - job eliminated, 4 months notice, 8 years at company (no special favors), quit and went to a startup before his time ran out. No party or benefits package or whatever; he's remote.
- Security person - 5 months notice, job placement program
- Researcher that no one likes and barely ever shows up to work - left quietly with *over a year* of notice.
- Program Manager - 18 years at company, didn't want a ceremony or anything, was representing the organization at meetings literally the day he left. Went to a new company; 30+% pay raise.
NOTE - my company underpays pretty significantly, but offers a bunch of other stuff. 2 other people on my team are currently soliciting offers from competing companies, given the new direction our company is going in.
FURTHER NOTE - my company is on its way to a 40% turnover year, which is totally frightening.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 24 2018, @05:51PM
At the institution I work for, the boss let one of the people know, they were going to be let go. That employee did their best to try and lead a "revolution" of sorts to try and keep their job. So yeah, doing the "right thing" isn't always going to end up with good feelings all the way around. I would most definitely be glad to get two weeks notice or more. It's definitely a much nicer way of doing business.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @12:59AM
"Two weeks is the norm for you telling an employer that you're leaving, but that isn't any kind of requirement."
Unless of course that company is a part of a much larger group of companies (increasingly the norm.) and don't want to blacklist you from hundreds potential employment opportunities. At which point it becomes kind of a requirement.
But yeah, if it's normal in the US for management to not pay employees they're laying off for any outstanding work, then I can totally understand why employees feel like throwing a wrench in the works if given the chance to do so. In their minds they're just getting their money's worth of entertainment out of what was owed them in the first place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 23 2018, @12:56PM
Being not allowed on premises does not mean you will not get paid as per contractual obligations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 23 2018, @02:26PM
That is quite the long list of assumptions you have. All of which build on each other and make yourself more mad.
I am not saying what you are saying did not happen. But it is equally likely they cut them a check and said 'get out'. I have had that happen.