Telltale games disappear from Steam as company commences liquidation

Telltale Games are being removed from Steam as the developer/publisher winds down.

GameDaily.biz reports that a company called Sherwood Partners is handling the liquidation by way of a process known as assignment proceedings. Similar to bankruptcy, it permits anyone purporting to have a claim against the company to come forward. Prospective claimants were contacted by letter on November 11th and have until April 9th, 2019, to provide evidential proof of their claims.

The proceedings show Telltale appears to be selling off all of its assets – including physical goods and furniture, trademarks, copyrights, software, and source code – although as GameDaily points out, it’s unclear what Telltale has received for turning over the assignment to Sherwood Partners.

A number of Telltale games have since been removed from Steam, including Back to the Future and Tales of Monkey Island, although some series such as Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode, and Game of Thrones are, at the time of writing, still available.

Furthermore, a former Telltale employee has informed GameDaily that post-employment health insurance – known as COBRA – expires for all former eligible Telltale staff on November 30th, 2018. This will leave the 250+ former staff without any means of pay for their own healthcare.

Telltale Games laid off the majority of its staff in a ‘majority studio closure’ back in September. 25 employees remained at the company, though most projects have reportedly – understandably – been cancelled, and subsequent reports suggest even the skeleton crew have now been let go. The layoffs were confirmed via a tweet on the official Telltale Games account, blaming a year ‘marked by insurmountable challenges’ for the decision.

A former Telltale Games employee subsequently launched a class action lawsuit against the company, claiming it violated California’s WARN Act in not giving those fired at least 60 days notice before termination. The case was brought by Vernie Roberts, Jr. and is on behalf of all those impacted by Telltale’s redundancies. Telltale is alleged to have failed to adhere to a number of its financial commitments to employees, including salaries, bonuses, commissions, holiday pay and more for the 60 days following terminations.