• “The Walking Dead: The Final Season” video game may be left unfinished due to layoffs at Telltale Games
  • Since 2012, “The Walking Dead” players have been making their own choices in the story-driven, critically-acclaimed video game. “The Final Season,” which recently started, promised to finally wrap the story after so many years.
  • “The Walking Dead: The Final Season” was sold as four playable episodes for $19.99 – but now episode 2, due out September 25th, will likely be the last.

Video game developer Telltale Games shocked the gaming industry when they laid off some 90 percent of their staff on September 21st, in anticipation of what appears to be a total shutdown of the company.

Known for narrative driven “choose your own adventure” games based on popular franchises, Telltale had enjoyed critical success with titles based on hit properties like “The Walking Dead,” “Batman,” and “Game of Thrones.”

The announcement was particularly surprising to fans of Telltale’s “The Walking Dead,” who were expecting a new entry into the series in just a few days. “The Walking Dead: The Final Season,” is the culmination of six years worth of storytelling, and players have been able to carry over their own personal decisions and story developments between four different releases in the series so far.

Each Telltale game has been released in a series of playable episodes that are about 2 hours each. Players can pay for a season pass in advance and play through all the episodes as they are available; they are usually released a month or two apart.

"The Walking Dead: The Final Season" was planned to be four episodes long and sold for $19.99, with the first episode being released on August 14 and the second due on September 25th. But with the sudden shuttering of Telltale's operations, the ending that some players have been working towards for years may now be in jeopardy.

Walking Dead Season 2

Foto: Clementine, the game's heroine, has come a long way since her 2012 debut. Her personality is shaped by player decisions.source"The Walking Dead"/Telltale Games

Telltale Games has not said whether it plans to release the final two episodes of the "Walking Dead" series, and, in the event that it doesn't, whether it will offer refunds to customers. Some fans suggested they have gotten refunds, presumably through the third-party online content stores they bought the game through.

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In a statement on September 21st, Telltale Games confirmed that all but 25 members of its 250-person staff had been laid off. Melissa Hutchinson, the lead voice actress of "The Walking Dead" video game, posted a statement to Twitter sharing her fears that the final season would be left incomplete after episode two is released.

Hutchinson played Clementine, a young African-American girl who comes of age in the zombie-infested world of "The Walking Dead." Players shaped the personality an eight-year-old Clem with their in-game decisions as she grew into a powerful protagonist in her own right. After three full seasons of character development, Telltale promised a conclusion to Clementine's story with "The Walking Dead: The Final Season."

Walking Dead Collection

Foto: Clementine's story will likely be left unfinished.source"The Walking Dead"/Telltale Games

Now, gamers who paid $19.99 for the final season's may be short changed for the third and fourth episodes, and fans who have invested their time in "The Walking Dead" game for the last six years may be left without closure.