Telltale’s Walking Dead could be finished by another studio

Telltale’s final series of the Walking Dead could be farmed out to another studio in order to be finished, it has been reported.

The news comes via sources speaking to Kotaku, and points out the deal – as is currently being worked on – would see the final episodes of the zombified series handed off to a third-party developer, with former Telltale employees hired onto the project on a contract basis.

Recent rumblings did point to what’s left of the studio’s desire to finish the final series of the Walking Dead, with mention of ‘potential partners’ pushed as a way in which the beleaguered studio would be able to complete its series.

According to the sources in Kotaku’s story, the third episode of the final series is all but finished and just needs a bit of polish before release, while the fourth episode has seen story and voice recording work done on it, with an early version originally set to be tested at the end of September. Obviously the updated timeline will see the episodes releasing much later, if they do arrive at all.

The deal itself would reportedly see anything from the whole team rehired to finish the series, down to the bare minimum required to get the work done. Details are fuzzy, but the one constant is that Telltale is negotiating to get this done, and to get it done with the original staff where possible.

Following the news – though unrelated directly – Rachel Noel, narrative designer at Telltale, revealed she and her team had been released from the studio. They had originally been some of the few survivors from the mass cull last month, but have since been given their marching orders.

Noel maintained there are still people working at Telltale, though how many and on what is up in the air. Other previous staffers have launched a class action lawsuit against the firm for alleged failure to pay severance, among other things.