Nearly five years ago, Telltale Games announced the official closure of the beloved episodic game studio. Properties like The Walking Dead series did end up being finished, but other hoped IPs were left in the void. That was until LCG Entertainment resurrected the team and the developer was once again on its feet. Since then, the firm shared the long-awaited The Wolf Among Us 2 is on the way.
In the midst of its second coming, Telltale Batman: Shadows Edition & Tales from the Borderlands both resurfaced on digital storefronts. Not to mention the upcoming Expanse project with Deck Nine Games underway as well. Appropriately, the developer in 2022 told that the following year fans can expect the game to hit store shelves.
However, 2023 appears to be too ambitious for Telltale Games as a new update has surfaced. In that, The Wolf Among Us 2 is now pushed beyond releasing this year. “We’ve made the difficult decision to delay The Wolf Among Us 2 out of 2023,” Telltale Games writes in a letterhead on Twitter. “We’re committed to delivering the sequel fans deserve and doing what’s right for the game while protecting the health of out team.”
We’ve made the difficult decision to delay The Wolf Among Us 2 #TWAU2.
— Telltale (@telltalegames) March 1, 2023
To give more context, we spoke with IGN: https://t.co/afoCUHZwIy pic.twitter.com/KhrAfIrwYB
In a separate interview with IGN, Telltale Games CEO Jamie Ottilie elaborated on the matter. “Making games is difficult and they need time to be right. And it doesn’t do any of us any good to ship something that’s not ready,” he offers on the sudden delay for The Wolf Among Us 2 so early into 2023.
“If we put this game out and it’s not ready, we’re going to get torn to shreds. The expectations are pretty high, and we want time to meet those and we want to be proud of it and know that, ‘Hey, this is the best game we could have made.’” He adds, “Let the world say what they will [once] it’s done, but at least we know that in these times, in these conditions, this is the best game that we could make.”
Ottilie continues, “I’ve done [crunch], and I don’t want to do it again, and it’s not fair to ask it,” he says. “You can’t plan a business around it. So yeah, part of it is about maintaining a healthy work culture. We don’t want to burn out our good people. It has been incredibly difficult to recruit the last two years between COVID and the labor markets and the growth in the games industry.
“So certainly, burning people out or grinding them down is the wrong thing to do long-term. It’s not how you build a business. And as an industry, we’re terrible about it. We burn our people out. We burn our best people out faster. And as an industry, if we’re going to continue to grow, we have to stop it. We just have to stop doing it and make better choices.”
Are you saddened by the further push of The Wolf Among Us 2’s release?
The Wolf Among Us 2 is listed for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.
Source: IGN