Telltale Games has raised $8 million in a series A funding round led by Hiro Capital and joined by production company Skybound Entertainment, reports Axios.
Founded by LucasArts veterans Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, the company is best known for narrative driven, episodic games. The company gained significant traction in 2010 with the release of Back to the Future: The Game and went on to create games based on the likes of Jurassic Park, Game of Thrones and, most famously, The Walking Dead.
However, despite its meteoric rise, the company declared bankruptcy in 2018, with LGC Entertainment purchasing its licenses and assets in 2019, and continued conducting business under the Telltale label.
The new funding will finance the marketing of The Expanse: A Telltale series, which is due for release this summer, as well as the development of The Wolf Among Us 2
“We wanted to make sure we could continue development on our existing slate while we had the resources to properly market The Expense to bring it out later this summer,” said CEO Jamie Ottilie.
The walking wounded?
Telltale Games’ initial closure came as a shock for many within the gaming community and saw the cancellation of several upcoming projects, including The Wolf Among Us 2 and a game based on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. The company’s revival being kicked into high gear will come as welcome news to fans of the company’s prior games, especially as no games have been released in the four years since the company was officially revived.
However, the company is looking to the future and what lessons it can learn from its past, rather than dwelling on its prior failures. “You have to give us a minute and let us make our own mess or own greatness and then you could judge it,” said Ottilie.
Although there’s no information is given on other games in development, the fact that Skybound Entertainment, which owns the licence for The Walking Dead, was involved in the funding round could hint at future games within the universe.
Last year, State of Survival crossed a milestone 100 million lifetime downloads, thanks in part to a successful crossover with The Walking Dead.