Litigators

Telltale Games Sued By Employees It Stabbed In The Back

Employees file class-action suit after sudden layoffs.

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Telltale Games makes video games defined by painful, gut-wrenching choices. Telltale’s most popular games are the Walking Dead series. They’re always putting you in impossible positions: cut off your hand or hide your wound? Ration food based on lottery, desert, or personal preference? And that classic zombie game choice: shoot your friend before he turns into a zombie, even though he’s not yet a zombie?

It’s a fun game… well, it’s fun for some. To me, they are great games that I do not enjoy playing. I want to have fun in video games and choosing which of my friends is going to die so I can get my daughter off the cannibal farm is not what I’m looking for after the kids are in bed.

But now I know why the owners of Telltale are so good at making this genre of game. It’s because in real life, they are totally ruthless towards their own employees.

From Kotaku:

Telltale Games employees were surprised when CEO Pete Hawley announced the closure of the company at a staff-wide meeting. One employee, a source told Kotaku, had been working until 3 AM the night before with no inkling that the studio was about to let them and over 200 other employees go, leaving behind a skeleton crew of 25 to finish off work on a final project (Minecraft: Story Mode according to Variety).

The suddenness of the meeting at the company’s San Rafael, California headquarters was described to Kotaku by a former employee who was there but wanted to remain anonymous as they pursue looking for work elsewhere in the video game industry. The timing was just one of the meeting’s unwelcome surprises. The head of human resources dropped another bombshell, to the audible shock of Telltale employees: there would be no severance.

Those laid off were encouraged to begin applying for unemployment as soon as possible and were told their health benefits would run out at the end of the month, just nine days later, according to a source and to social media postings by ex-developers. They had 30 minutes to leave the building.

Jesus Christ. I played a Telltale Game of Thrones game where I refused to bend the knee to Ramsey Bolton and he murdered me and my entire family, and that’s not as cold as what Telltale did to their employees. No notice, no severance, and your health runs out in nine days?

Well, if there’s one way to handle bastards who flay their employees, it’s forming an alliance with a pimp who controls an army. Failing that, perhaps a class-action lawyer will do. From Gamespot:

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A former employee of Telltale Games has filed a class action complaint against the company in California federal court. The complaint alleges that the developer was obligated to provide 60 days notice of the impending termination, in compliance with the state’s WARN Act…

As the report notes, companies have some wiggle room with exceptions to the WARN Act, such as if the company is seeking to acquire new capital and can’t risk the information of pending layoffs becoming public. It’s unknown how many employees will join or if the lawsuit will ultimately be successful.

Man, I haven’t thought about the WARN Act since Heller Ehrman imploded in 2008.

As usual, I’m on the side of the employees. Employers who play games with people’s lives should be punished.

Telltale Employees Left Stunned By Company Closure, No Severance [Update] [Kotaku]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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