In the wake of Telltale Games’ sudden collapse, Insomniac Games has hired former Telltale lead writer Mary Kenney.
She announced via Twitter back on December 15 that she would be starting with the Marvel’s Spider-Man developer in the new year.
I am over-the-moon thrilled to tell y’all that I’m joining @insomniacgames in the New Year
— Mary Kenney (@maryknews) December 15, 2018
Kenney was the former lead writer for The Walking Dead: The Final Season. She was also a contributing writer for the Batman: The Enemy Within series.
This comes after Telltale Games shockingly closed down back in September, laying off 270 staff members. Only a small skeleton crew remained following those layoffs, then they too were laid off after work had finished on Minecraft Story Mode for Netflix. A report that came out after the closure said that it was likely due to Telltale Games’ dependency on investor money, which dried up.
The studio is currently undergoing liquidation, and games have already been delisted from Steam’s stores. The sudden collapse was a stunning fall from grace for a company that had received such critical acclaim and had a number of games in development, including a Stranger Things game and a sequel to The Wolf Among Us.
Telltale was finishing up The Walking Dead: The Final Season’s second episode when the studio partially shut down. That episode did end up getting released on September 25. The game’s future remained in limbo until Skybound Games announced that they would be finishing the series.
When the announcement was made, Skybound said that “many” of the original team members would be brought back. But with this new position, it doesn’t seem like Kenney will be among them.
Telltale Games also came under fire for the way these layoffs were handled; they came out of nowhere and the studio did not provide any severance pay. Former employees have since filed a class action lawsuit in California saying that Telltale violated labor laws by firing their staff without notice.
