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Telltale CEO says their games have dipped in quality/innovation, plan to fix that in 2018, tease new IP

by rawmeatcowboy
12 December 2017
GN Version 5.0

A portion of a Venturebeat interview with Telltale CEO, Pete Hawley...

Hawley: One of the challenges over the last few years, as the company doubled in size and the amount of product going out increased exponentially — we just took our eye off the ball on innovation and quality. Before I took the job, the first thing I did was go on forums and app stores and try to get an idea of the voice of our players. It was clear that our games had become fairly predictable. The formula is loved, but it’s getting old. It’s time for us to innovate, get back to our roots, and do a much better job with fewer games.

We made the decision, going into 2018, that it’s better for us to get to three games next year and do our very best work again. Give ourselves some breathing room, time, space, get back to some real innovations. We’re closing the Walking Dead storyline with season four. We want to get back to our best with that. That’s coming in the summer. We’ll close out Batman in the first half of next year. We have a new IP that I can’t announce yet, but we’re really excited about it. We’re doing that for Q4.

GamesBeat: Is it fair to say that we might see fewer things like Batman and more things based on newer IP?

Hawley: Yeah, for sure. We’re very proud of Batman. Some of the more recent reviews have said it’s the best treatment of the Joker as a character they’ve read for decades. I think we’re still doing great work. It’s done well for us. But really I think we’re best when we get back to the grittier, deeper, darker side with some of the IP we’ve worked with, and when we’re given real freedom of choice. We’re not playing in worlds or with characters that have very specific sets of rules and ideals and approval processes around them. We have more freedom when we take our own path.

[Link]