I didn't realize TellTale sales were this bad

I just took a look at a couple youtube videos just to see what people were saying there. And this one lady brought up a sales chart of recent years for the company. And boy I have to say no wonder they are closing if the sales were this bad.

Sales for ANF were about a twentieth of what season 1's sales were and Walking Dead games were still selling better than pretty much everything else they were releasing.

Go to 4 min and 50 sec point to see the sales numbers

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xty3hpwlYV4&t=293s

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Comments

  • They focused on too many games instead to put all their efforts on the good ones, that really were money maker games for them, like the second season for TWAU or a better third installement for TWDG instead of what we received with ANF.

  • Millions of people watch gamers play these games on youtube, do viewers just want to watch other people play it like it’s a tv show? Holy christ.

  • Oh my goodness...that's seriously fucked up.
    And here, I thought it was just a bunch of entitled little assholes libeling and threatening the hand that feeds em. The Walking Dead really was a source of toxicity beyond it's initial acclaim.

  • edited September 2018

    Also this, I mean being a game where story is basically everything and there isnt almost any gameplay whatsoever, a lot of people prefered to watch some walkthroughs on youtube or twitch or whatever, I think this is a big mistake. Games like that should be banned to be streamed like the way they did recently.

    Millions of people watch gamers play these games on youtube, do viewers just want to watch other people play it like it’s a tv show? Holy christ.

  • Yep. We can see why they were relying so much on marketing gimmicks over the past few years. It's because they weren't making money off the games and were trying to find a way they could make them profitable.

    DabigRG posted: »

    Oh my goodness...that's seriously fucked up. And here, I thought it was just a bunch of entitled little assholes libeling and threatening the hand that feeds em. The Walking Dead really was a source of toxicity beyond it's initial acclaim.

  • That problem lies more in the lack of genuinely impactful choices, hub exploration, and gameplay mechanics. Lots of people bought Season 1 but then the quality dipped around S2. People probably didn’t think S3 was worth the money after seeing the playthroughs so the difficult choice to encourage people buying a shit game would be brought up.

    Gauss99 posted: »

    Also this, I mean being a game where story is basically everything and there isnt almost any gameplay whatsoever, a lot of people prefered t

  • Ye true like Detroit Become Human, that game is so big, I watched some videos about it because I dont like consoles, but I was tempted to buy a PS4 just for that game.

    That problem lies more in the lack of genuinely impactful choices, hub exploration, and gameplay mechanics. Lots of people bought Season 1 b

  • If Microsoft continued TFS on their Xbox, you think it could be similar on the level of Detroit?

    Gauss99 posted: »

    Ye true like Detroit Become Human, that game is so big, I watched some videos about it because I dont like consoles, but I was tempted to buy a PS4 just for that game.

  • I'm not sure about it but it could be the case, anyway I'm 100% sure that if Microsoft continues TSF on their Xbox, I will buy one just to play with that game if it will ever be an exclusive for that console.

    If Microsoft continued TFS on their Xbox, you think it could be similar on the level of Detroit?

  • I wouldn’t be mad about it but I would still fear it starting from scratch. Would be a good way to try and exercise maximum profits through actual choices and consequences, doesn’t make it feel any better about Done Running and Suffer the Children wiped clean.

    Gauss99 posted: »

    I'm not sure about it but it could be the case, anyway I'm 100% sure that if Microsoft continues TSF on their Xbox, I will buy one just to play with that game if it will ever be an exclusive for that console.

  • Man if they have to start from stracth but retaining the same quality of Detroit Become Human, I would be totally up for it!

    I wouldn’t be mad about it but I would still fear it starting from scratch. Would be a good way to try and exercise maximum profits through

  • They shoulda focused on TWD/TWAU/Batman and stopped with episodic releases imo.

  • If Lily is brought too, then I’d definitely be up for it!

    Gauss99 posted: »

    Man if they have to start from stracth but retaining the same quality of Detroit Become Human, I would be totally up for it!

  • Unpopular opinion, but I believe the making more games idea actually works. We had TWAU, TWD S2, MCSM S1, GOT, TFTBL. All of that, and those sales are actually decent. But after the shitty engine revamp that (doesn't look that bad in TFS and Bman S2) has ugly menus and decreases frame-rates drastically, at least on a standard PS4. Well, it got pretty bad after ANF.

    Another thing worth saying is that the franchises weren't so eye catching, at least to me. I would much rather buy TFTBL than GOTG.

    ANOTHER thing worth saying is that Telltale games are always given free to people left and right, like there's no value in them,. Ps Plus, Xbox Live Gold, Steam Free games, Twitch Prime, and just sales every two months. Got TWD and TWAU for 8 dollars combined.

    Gauss99 posted: »

    They focused on too many games instead to put all their efforts on the good ones, that really were money maker games for them, like the second season for TWAU or a better third installement for TWDG instead of what we received with ANF.

  • I am honestly baffled.

    I have read that literally nothing made a profit and Batman tanked hard, only Season 1, Minecraft and the Netflix deal bought any money in.

    I knew that Telltale were suffering but holy christ - if sales were this bad to the point where nobody was making a profit, then I have no idea what management was doing to not innovate these games and why they spent so much more on licensing and getting actors (Game of Thrones comes to mind because I know hiring the actors and whatnot must have been so expensive).

    This is honestly awful

  • edited September 2018

    TWD S1, MCSM, And 7 Days to Die were the only games Telltale made a profit from, the rest of the games did bad because of the constant release of games every year. (Which surprised me because I thought TWAU and Tales did good).

    Look at the amount of games they pumped throughout the years after TWD S1:

    2013-2014: TWD S2, TWAU, Tales, GoT

    2015-2016: Tales, GoT, MCSM, TWD: Michonne, Batman S1, TWD: ANF (6 Games in one year holy shit).

    2017-2018: TWD: ANF, GotG, MCSM S2, Batman S2, TWD: TFS.

    Jesus...Not to mention that hiring the A+ cast they had for GoT and Tales costed them a fortune only for those games to tank.

  • This

    Gauss99 posted: »

    Also this, I mean being a game where story is basically everything and there isnt almost any gameplay whatsoever, a lot of people prefered t

  • This goes to show that they should have prioritised making their own original series as soon as possible after Walking Dead S1 and gone from there.

  • Indeed. Bruner had such a hardon for licensing expensive IPs he licensed everything he could, spending assloads of money, only for all of it to tank. They could have saved all that money, spent some time developing their own IP and been far better off financially. Even if their own IP didn't sell well, they wouldn't be millions in the hole just from licensing fees alone.

    This goes to show that they should have prioritised making their own original series as soon as possible after Walking Dead S1 and gone from there.

  • Idk, I think I really like a Telltale game based on Borderlands, Batman, and Tales. I'd love to see a Star Wars and probably a Spiderman Telltale too. It's part of the reason why so many like Telltale, despite how expensive the licensing of IP's is. I still don't get why LiS S1 was $20, but LiS S2 is $40. And here at Telltale, we giving all of our games for free, in a sale, or just downright cheap. Oh yeah, and we also have a boatload of around 400 employees. And let's not forget our killer voice-cast. Oh, and we're also an independant company too!

    Indeed. Bruner had such a hardon for licensing expensive IPs he licensed everything he could, spending assloads of money, only for all of it

  • Don’t use the Youtube crutch...... people turn out by good game..... I bought every game TTG made until what I saw in The Walking Dead season two..... After I don’t buy anymore... episodes for shorter, there were no more good puzzles, the hubs were gone.

    Millions of people watch gamers play these games on youtube, do viewers just want to watch other people play it like it’s a tv show? Holy christ.

  • Too many dark, serious games. Too much bragging about meaningful choices, when nothing really mattered. Too many licensed games. Keep a small team, produce a LucasArts style game and a serious game of some kind a year, preferably without an expensive license attached. Too late now.


  • Slightly out of date but this chart gives you an idea of when it started to go wrong for them sales-wise.

  • Yikes. I picture 2012 Telltale being like Wallstreet in 1928. "We're doing great, it's going to be like this forever, light my cigar with that 100!"

  • edited September 2018

    I don't understand the huge drop in sales from TWD1 to Wolf and TWD2 and Tales, especially TWD2 since it was a direct sequel to their best selling title. Wolf and Tales were still good games. TWD2 wasn't bad but it definitely was a step down from TWD1. Hell, Tales is the second best game they've put out, next to TWD1. My only thought is TWD1 was a freak occurrence, never should have sold as much as it did, probably helped along by the TWD show still being in peak popularity. But the show was still enjoying it's peak popularity when TWD2 released, too, so maybe that's not it. Maybe it's zombie fatigue. I may be wrong but I think TWD1 reignited the zombie genre in gaming, and maybe by the time TWD2 launched most casual fans were burnt out.

    Maybe TWD1 getting Game of the Year is why it sold so many copies. I'd like to see a chart or graph or something showing the sales numbers for TWD1 over time to see how many copies it sold before vs how many it sold after the GotY award.

    Regardless, you can see the sales numbers take another relatively large dip after Game of Thrones, and understandably so. That game was awful. I think somewhere around Tales/GoT is when Bruner got obsessed with making as many games as possible in as little time as possible, pushing quantity over quality. GoT was so bad that it's the last TellTale game I bought with the exception of New Frontier and TFS.

    Then there's another big dip after New Frontier, and again, understandably so. I personally liked New Frontier well enough but most people hated it.

    Slightly out of date but this chart gives you an idea of when it started to go wrong for them sales-wise.

  • Funnily enough, most of the OG Telltale devs like Randy Tudor, Dan Connors and Kevin Bruner are from LucasArts, but they made Telltale after their game idea that they'd worked so hard on was put down.
    Waaaait a minute! This is kinda like LucasArts' Star Wars Clone Wars thing, how it got unfinished because Disney bought them or something.

    Too many dark, serious games. Too much bragging about meaningful choices, when nothing really mattered. Too many licensed games. Keep a s

  • I think somewhere around Tales/GoT is when Bruner got obsessed with making as many games as possible in as little time as possible, pushing quantity over quality.

    It was after TWAU when he did that. TWD s2, Tales, MCSM, GOT, Michonne, etc. Denis Lenart and Nick Herman, Pierre Shorette must have had fun/a rough time juggling all those projects. Man, good times, good times.

    I don't understand the huge drop in sales from TWD1 to Wolf and TWD2 and Tales, especially TWD2 since it was a direct sequel to their best s

  • Yeah @Hillbilly_Dave I think season 1's success was largely wrapped around the excitement people had over the show at the time. The game would have been released around the time of season 3 when the ratings for the show were really starting to take off. In regards to season 2 of the game sequels usually never do as well as the originals anyway plus you have to take into account it came at a time when the whole 'newness' of a Walking Dead story was beginning to wear off. Plus we need to take into account that maybe season 1 having Glenn and Herschel in it was a big part of why it sold so well.

    I don't understand the huge drop in sales from TWD1 to Wolf and TWD2 and Tales, especially TWD2 since it was a direct sequel to their best s

  • Honestly, they probably should've held off on TWDG Season 2 for a while.

    Slightly out of date but this chart gives you an idea of when it started to go wrong for them sales-wise.

  • I don’t understand how TWD S2 didn’t sell more copies. Like wouldn’t almost anyone who played the first game want to know what happened to Clementine? Idk it doesn’t make sense...

  • Bad marketing...

    I don’t understand how TWD S2 didn’t sell more copies. Like wouldn’t almost anyone who played the first game want to know what happened to Clementine? Idk it doesn’t make sense...

  • Clementine probably wasn't quite the draw that we all assumed she was. That to go along with the fact that sequels hardly ever do as well as the originals and it makes for a game that will only sell about half as well as the first.

    I don’t understand how TWD S2 didn’t sell more copies. Like wouldn’t almost anyone who played the first game want to know what happened to Clementine? Idk it doesn’t make sense...

  • S2 wasn't nearly as well-received critically and they made the mistake of making all the S1 choices invalid in the first 5 minutes of S2 episode 1. I think that turned a lot of people off, they kept their save files around because they were told it would be important. And yeah, sequels don't tend to do as well as the original. I'm sure a lot of people finished S1 and didn't really want any more than that.

    I don’t understand how TWD S2 didn’t sell more copies. Like wouldn’t almost anyone who played the first game want to know what happened to Clementine? Idk it doesn’t make sense...

  • It is frustrating to think that the business was running for years based on what was ended up being an anomaly. I could see chalking up the drop for Wolf to not having a Tv show, but it was a constant decline. S2 didn't sell half as well as S1. That might have been the time to reevaluate because whatever magic came together for S1 clearly short-lived.

  • well to be honest the TV show has lost the majority of the viewers too

  • Yep. It's funny though because the comic is selling better than ever now. Obviously the comic has some truly die hard readers.

    JmoooX posted: »

    well to be honest the TV show has lost the majority of the viewers too

  • I read an interview where Telltale said there wouldn't be more Bordelands because episode sales dropped off steeply. I'm surprised to see that it ended up selling better than bigger licenses, like GOT and Batman.

  • Personally I was just burnt out after Borderlands. Whenever a new Telltale property was announced at E3 or the Game Awards it wasn't exciting, it was a feeling of more of the same. They released so much in a short time I couldn't keep up.

    Greed1914 posted: »

    I read an interview where Telltale said there wouldn't be more Bordelands because episode sales dropped off steeply. I'm surprised to see that it ended up selling better than bigger licenses, like GOT and Batman.

  • Tales was a good game. GoT was fucking garbage. I can't say whether Batman was good or not, Aside from the TWD series, GoT was so bad I never bought another TellTale game.

    Greed1914 posted: »

    I read an interview where Telltale said there wouldn't be more Bordelands because episode sales dropped off steeply. I'm surprised to see that it ended up selling better than bigger licenses, like GOT and Batman.

  • Another point i agree with is, youtubers have alot to do with how games make a profit/revenue too, they should be encouraging their fans to support TT in these games, they just sit their watch youtubers play the game, I watch YTs too, but I always buy the games and support the devs etc, it is a really-really sad state of affairs from TT, they took on too much and got left with poop and vomit.

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