Game of Thrones’ Most Tragic Story Will Never Be Finished – Screen Rant

The discontinuation of Telltale's Game of Thrones has less to do with the quality of the game and more with the financial troubles of its developers

In 2014, Telltale Games made a narrative-driven point-and-click adventure set within the same fictional universe as the renowned HBO show Game of Thrones. Although the game sold a decent amount of copies and was well-received by critics including those who were initially skeptical at the thought of a Westeros-set story that wasn't written by George R.R. Martin it somehow never received a second season.

That wasn't Telltale's original intention. Like series creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, the developers were known to craft stories the likes of which had to be told across several seasons. As a matter of fact, the game resembled the show in more ways than one: its main characters included a young man with a military background, a teenage girl who served as the handmaiden to a queen, and a boy who doubles as the incumbent lord of his family's estate.

Related: Every Official Game Of Thrones Video Game (& When They Released)

At the end of the day, the discontinuation of Telltale's Game of Thrones had less to do with the quality of its story, which followed the members of House Forrester after the events of the Red Wedding, and more with the financial situation of its creators. After making a name for themselves with the first season of The Walking Dead, a surprise-hit which wonitself a"Game of the Year" award, Telltale appeared to be at the top of their game. Unfortunately for the developers, their first hit led to the implementation of a business model they simply couldn't sustain, and players would never get to see the ramifications of Mira Forrester's last tragic decision.

Following the success of The Walking Dead, Telltale began looking for other franchises to work with. As it happens, Game of Thrones was only the first step. In just two years, the company also released games based on franchises like BatmanandMinecraftas well asGuardians of the Galaxy. Needless to say, the workload was too much for Telltale's mere 200 employees to handle, and the continuous expansion of both their team and their production ultimately proved to be their downfall.

Even though the aforementioned titles performed well, none of them achieved even a fraction of the fame commanded by The Walking Dead. As if that wasn't bad enough on its own, Telltale's flagship series was also starting to underperform. Due to drastic changes made to the original story, each subsequent season of the zombie series sold fewer copies and received lower scores from critics. By the time the fourth and final season of Telltale's The Walking Deadwas released,much less people were playing.

On September 21, 2018, while that season was being produced, Telltale laid off the majority of its staff. Keeping on a skeleton crew to churn out the final chapters of the story that had once launched them into stardom, the company readied itself to declare bankruptcy. Along the way it was forced to cancel all of the projects currently in development, including the second season of Game of Thrones. Fortunately for fans, they still got a great first season to revisit, even if its tragic story does end on a cliffhanger-like moment. Unfortunately for them, it's a lot like watching the HBO show, only for it to end right after Ned Stark's death.

Next: Telltale Games is Being Resurrected

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Tim is a Dutch journalist living in New York. He studied film and literature at NYU, his favorites movies are Kung Fu Panda and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and his writing has appeared in PopMatters, History Today and The New York Observer among others.

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Game of Thrones' Most Tragic Story Will Never Be Finished - Screen Rant