As he waited for the hundreds of employees to trickle into the room, Telltale CEO Pete Hawley cracked some jokes, easing the tension for a moment before discussing the matter at hand. The entire studio had received the meeting invitation just an hour and a half beforehand, and confusion spread quick. “Were you invited?” coworkers asked one another, each wondering about the nature of the meeting. Some were concerned it was a small batch of layoffs, while others were convinced it was good news after hearing talk of new investors. If anything, things looked promising with Telltale’s next big, high-profile projects on the horizon, including the finale to The Walking Dead, a Stranger Things game born out of a Netflix partnership, and the anticipated return of The Wolf Among Us. This made Hawley’s next words all the more shocking.