以2018年倒闭的顶级游戏研发商为例谈游戏公司的保障状况

原作者：Michael Futter 译者：Willow Wu

Visceral、Motiga、Runic、Capcom Vancouver、Boss Key、Bandai Namco Vancouver、Telltale Games，这些还只是2018年倒闭的游戏公司的其中一部分，1000多人因此失业。他们进入了钟意的公司，比如Sony Liverpool、Lionhead、Vigil、Team Bondi、Factor 5、Slant Six、Pandemic、Guerrilla Cambridge、Ensemble、Red Octane，还有其他上百个最后因资金耗尽或者被母公司关闭而悲剧收场的公司。

对于游戏行业来说，在这段充满挑战的岁月中，2018年尤为艰难。最新进展就是Telltale彻底破产了，无咸鱼翻身的可能。在大规模裁员之后，Telltale CEO Pete Hawley先是在推特上反驳了关于公司彻底破产的言论，之后又删除了他的个人账户。（我们知道Telltale与Sherwood Partners签署了转让协议，打算通过清算软件和实体物资来偿还债务以及索赔。）

即使一切安好也要计划后路

公司的管理层不是起床后脑子就蹦出要关闭公司的想法。通常会做出这种决定是因为公司资金枯竭，而且找不到买家或者投资者。如果资金流断了，员工就拿不到工资，也没法交电费。关键在于管理者们要明白公司什么时候该关门，而且这是不可避免的一件事。

“通常来说，游戏公司都有一部分资金是用于电费和员工工资的，”Odin Law & Media创始人Brandon Huffman说。“当领导们看到资金情况越来越不乐观时，他们应该能预见到公司倒闭的可能性。即使他们能100年屹立不倒，为最坏的情况做打算也不会让你日后后悔。”

但问题在于几乎没有公司是为倒闭做了充足的准备，而绝大多数小型公司根本没有计划的意识。公司应该做什么和能做什么之间是存在着差距的（假设时间和资源无限），许多公司等很久之后才做决策，员工的遣散费和延长福利都不一定能保证。

“在理想世界中，随着公司的成熟，他们会准备一个‘战备基金’——可以用来抵御商业模式、行业或经济前景可能受到的冲击，”Hoeg Law的律师Richard Hoeg说。“我想就连Telltale的管理层也会喜欢。然而，对于企业和个人来说，这种理想的世界往往是一样遥远的——人们通常也希望自己的应急支票账户里有比现在更多的钱。谈到经济歧视，对更成熟的行业(通常是监管更严格的行业)而言，通过“冲击测试”来模拟“如果道琼斯指数下跌1000点”或“我们在同一天失去了两个主要合约”等可能发生的情况并不罕见。

“从我的经历来看，大多数公司并没有那么成熟。在我的职业生涯中，我甚至数不清有多少公司的A轮融资或可转换债券需要在周五前完成，因为他们要发工资。很多公司都挨着底线运营，这不一定是因为高层心狠手辣，而是他们认为高风险的前沿扩张方式是他们成功的有效途径。这个想法有时是对的，但通常都是错的。”

公司倒闭的人力成本

关于公司倒闭，就像Huffman在最近的博文中写到的“将会是一个非常血腥的场面。”当公司财务陷入困境时，裁员是不可避免的。不管倒闭是不是迫在眉睫，管理层一定要提前采取必要的措施来保证员工的合法权益。

遣散费并不是强制性的，而且一般不会给承包商(除非另有合同规定)。最后的工资必须按照州法律支付。有些地方要求在解雇时就发放，而有些地方规定在正常的薪资周期内补偿即可。

在美国，还有一个关键事项就是员工日后的医保福利。如果雇员拥有的是公司提供的医疗保险，那么他们有权依照统一综合预算协调法案(Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act，“COBRA”)通过自费在接下来的18个月内继续享受这些福利，但这的确是一笔不小的费用。根据eHealth的统计，美国居民的医保花费平均每人就要440美元。如果是一个家庭，费用就要近1200美元，而且这是在失去工作收入的情况下。

Telltale员工的情况是更为罕见的，他们的职工医保在公司倒闭的两个月之后就停止了，而不是COBRA所规定的18个月——但这是完全合法的。当公司清算时，雇主和员工之间的协议通常也会结束，因此Telltale员工失业后公司是无法继续支付医保的。

“在非开放注册期间，失业的员工可以以特殊情况为由申请医疗保险。”Huffman说。

在局外人看来，我们很难说Telltale究竟应不应该早点采取行动来确保员工的利益，并提供某种形式的遣散费。就如Variety之前报道的，Telltale原本还指望着最后一搏，希望两位潜在投资人AMC（《行尸走肉》发行方）和Smilegate（韩国游戏公司）继续为公司提供资金，所以他们没有对员工透漏任何信息。

“那些事后旁观者很容易就说事情都这么紧急了，员工当然应该被告知啊。但有个问题他们没考虑：员工谈话，”Hoeg解释道。“如果Telltale在生死攸关的融资前几周组织一次会议，告诉员工们公司可能撑不下去了，那么这些公司的主要资产（也是投资方看中Telltale的主要原因）就很有可能开始寻求新的避风港，并且向 Variety这样的媒体披露相关情况。 由此一来，融资的成功概率就会比原先低很多。所以，为了避免财主撤资状况的产生，将员工蒙在鼓里不是什么不寻常的决定，因为这种情况下融资的成功概率是最高的。”

然而Telltale员工的遭遇还不算最惨的。2017年底，《漫威英雄传》开发商Gazillion宣布破产。雇员们的遣散费和休假累积工资也无望了。在倒闭前几周，员工们被强制休假，而且是无薪的——这是所有雇员的噩梦。严格来说，这些人还有工作（公司的财政状况可能会好转），但是没有薪资。在这种情况下，公司人心涣散，雇员会迅速调整自己的简历，希望在裁员之前找到一份新工作。

裁员从来就不是一件容易的事，尤其是还伴随着倒闭。考虑到安全问题，被裁员的人都会被要求迅速离开公司，带着失业和“被驱逐”的双重打击离开岗位。

“这就是为什么Telltale员工必须在30分钟之内收拾好东西离开，不然就有人来带你出去了，”Hoeg解释说。一个靠IP谋生的公司，比如软件开发商，他们的资产就很容易通过U盘或者邮件转移。显然，这些公司可以采取更加温和的措施，以免给大众留下冷酷无情的印象。但是从公司的角度考虑，他们并不知道谁不会立即情绪失控把电脑丢出窗外或者是偷走某个已经投入1500万美元的游戏半成品。

“公司倒闭以后，运营者的责任从为股东谋利变成为还债权人的钱，在这时债权人肯定是拿不回全额赔偿。因此，公司最先做的应该是是避免额外负债的产生——比如拖欠工资——并尽可能选择最好的方式保存资产。一旦进入了保全阶段，最好的办法通常就是确保资产接触途径被完全锁定。”

没有被第一次裁员所波及到的人，就比如Telltale剩下的那25个人，就要接受重新分配。为一家稳定持续经营(而且应该能永远如此)的公司工作与为一家接近倒闭的公司工作是完全不同的。

“裁员之后留下来的这些人必须在期望和可交付成果的相关事项上达成共识，”Huffman说。“在这段走向终结的日子里，能有几个人来协助是非常关键的。然而，让人们待在一个即将倒闭的公司里也是一件颇具挑战性的事。接下来的会议可能会是大家坐在一起坦诚地讨论员工们是否愿意做某些事，不愿意的话公司要采取应急措施让承包商和第三方供应商接替他们的工作。”

避开法律问题

有几个法律方面的地雷高管们可能会不小心踩到。Telltale之前可能已经违反了WARN法案（Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act）——他们表示那时候公司还没有完全倒闭，而且那25名员工是可以预见的。

“国会通过的这一法案中规定，若雇主要进行大规模裁员或者是关闭公司，那么他们必须提前60日通知员工，”Hoeg解释说。“在加州也通过了一部适用于Telltale情况的法律。未能提前通知的惩罚就是公司要补偿通知期限内的员工薪资。比如Telltale，他们就要额外补偿60天的薪资。在我们看来，这其中最关键的争议就跟那个最终落空的资金有关。Telltale的说法仅适用于在联邦法律下的‘完全关闭（full plant closing）’或者是加州法律下的‘终止（termination）’状态。 这就是Telltale在试图保持半营业状态时踩到的地雷。”

Telltale可能会更改他们早先的声明，并试图说服加州法院最初的裁员就是倒闭的开始。不管怎样，这个诉讼还会继续。原告是否能得到补偿金就完全是另一回事了。

“如果WARN法案适用的话——记住，也可能不适用——我觉得双方会和解，”Huffman说。“就我所看到的情况来说，我不认为Telltale有足够资产来支持辩护或者是支付判决赔偿金，所以从众人的最佳利益考虑，快速和解可能是最好的办法，免得大家到最后都两手空空。”

关闭公司的过程中还需要跟主要股东以及销售商进行交流。高层和董事会成员需要让保险公司知道公司即将关闭，并通过应收账款或直接将应收账款出售给收债代理公司收取未偿还的款项。

Huffman还建议根据合同的处理后续事宜。一些许可协议可能有规定公司关闭等同于违约。在这类情况下，版权公司可能会收回授权。这可能就是为什么某些Telltale游戏，包括《回到未来》《侏罗纪公园》等等在公司即将进入清算程序之时就下架商店了。

破产有时并不是事情发展的终点，也不一定是问题的答案。美国《破产法》第11章允许公司进行重组，他们有可能会恢复往日的辉煌。然而第7章是指公司彻底解散，进行清算。转让协议，也就是Telltale之前签署的那份，和《破产法》第七章的结果一样，没有那么多法律方面的繁文缛节。

在结束之前，公司需要解决所有的诉讼纠纷。任何剩余的资金都要用于偿还有担保债务(与特定资产相关的债务)。之后，提交最终的纳税申报单，如果还有剩余资金，则分给股东。

公司到最后就剩下一叠记录文件了。

如果是大型发行商旗下的公司呢？

发行商在考虑组建、收购、扶持一家开发工作时就要讨论投资方向。开销和地理位置当然是有考虑过，选择旧金山、温哥华、西雅图和蒙特利尔这样的热门城市，工作室就要面临着员工高频变动的风险。在机会多多、薪酬竞争激烈的地区，留住优秀人才会更加困难。

但这一般不会是工作室倒闭的原因。投资决策通常会从原型开发进度、项目可行性和人才团队方面开始着手考虑。

尽管Telltale一直是近期裁员和倒闭话题的焦点，但它并不是过去几年里唯一有过类经历的公司。Capcom、Take-Two、Bandai Namco、EA、Activision、Sony、Microsoft等公司之前都有关闭开发工作室。

不幸的事情总在发生。可能有数百人的生活瞬间陷入动荡之中。

在这类事件中，超级发行商总会被人们看成是大坏蛋。消费者有一种误解，认为我们不断在重复收购/创建-关闭工作室这样一个过程，我们是非常无情的。在当代游戏开发文化中，开发工作室领导和发行商决策者之间几乎不会发生什么分歧。一旦裁员和倒闭有发生的可能，工作室领导们通常就会立即加入讨论。

大多数发行公司的高层也会做出同样的决定。CEO或一位关系密切的下属会积极参与其中，帮助他们集思广益，看能不能保持工作室的运转或将员工安排到其它职位。

据一家大型发行公司的代表说，这些决定并非轻率之举，要考虑的因素有很多，其中最主要的就是对工作室的员工可能造成影响。

决定裁员或关闭工作室时会涉及到许多部门。人力资源部门负责帮助过渡员工，在公司内部寻找适合的职位，并联系其他工作室和发行商合作举办专场招聘会。工作室领导和发行商代表要尽可能帮助更多人过渡，把事情的影响降到最小。法律团队要确保所有事情都遵守联邦以及该州的法律法规。设施&房地产部门要帮助处理或者重新安置设备，办好关闭的相关事宜。

有些公司会在旗下其他开发工作室搜寻空缺职位，给适合的人提供新的机会。在某些情况，这能为员工减轻至少50%的损失。有时甚至会出现接近100%的情况，不仅是内部职位，工作内容和报酬方面也有可比性。

如果找不到合适的职位，大型发行公司一般都会继续为员工提供一段时间的福利，还有一笔遣散费。具体情况要根据一系列因素而定，包括裁员之前工作时间以及职位。

要记住的事

Huffman和Hoeg都竭力主张即使是在鼎盛时期，公司也应该为倒闭提前做好规划。一个没有达到的里程碑，一份失败的合同，或者一个关键投资者撤资，都可能导致船的倾覆。不管一个公司的规模有多大，都可能会因为几个错误的决策或者资金状况不佳走向破灭。

就如Hoeg总结的Telltale和其他一些公司，它们先前都是市场中的佼佼者，但也遭遇了重创。

“这跟《VH-1音乐背后》（游戏邦注纪录片，每集会采访一位热门的音乐人或团体，了解他们的成功之路以及遇到的艰辛）中的受采访人物很像：一个不起眼的小天才，凭借某个轰动一时的作品迅速获得成功。为了保持市场地位，他们的涉足领域也逐渐扩大，而没有真正去维持那种成功所必需的缓慢增长曲线。”他说。“这是就是你从我的领域经常听到的故事——风险投资和技术。创业不会引你走向末路，成功才会——因为它会让你会忽视梦碎的可能性。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Visceral. Motiga. Runic. Capcom Vancouver. Boss Key. Bandai Namco Vancouver.

Telltale Games.

These are just some of the studios that have been closed in 2018, causing more than 1,000 jobs to evaporate. They join beloved companies like Sony Liverpool, Lionhead, Vigil, Team Bondi, Factor 5, Slant Six, Pandemic, Guerrilla Cambridge, Ensemble, Red Octane, and hundreds of others that have run out of money or been shut down by publishing parents over the decades.

In a sea of challenging years for the game industry, 2018 has been particularly hard. The most recent beat in the story is that Telltale is well and truly dead. Right after the studio laid off most of its 274 workers, Telltale CEO Pete Hawley disputed the company’s complete shutdown in a Twitter comment since deleted along with the rest of his account. (We know now the company has entered into an assignment agreement with Sherwood Partners to liquidate software and physical assets in hopes of settling any debts and claims.)

Planning for the end, even when things are good

Studio executives don’t just wake up one day and decide to close their business. Typically these are decisions made because cash is running out and a buyer or investor can’t be found. Without a financial infusion, staff can’t be paid and the lights get turned off. The key for executives is understanding when the die has been cast and closure is inevitable.

“Often in the games industry there is some cash on hand that is allocated to keeping the lights on and people paid,” says attorney Brandon Huffman, founder of Odin Law & Media. “When leadership can see the runway of available cash is running out, they should look at scenarios for potentially shutting down. Even if they don’t close and stay open 100 more years, there should be no regret from planning for the opposite.”

The problem is that few companies do fully plan for the opposite, and most smaller studios simply don’t have the means to do so. There’s a gap between what studios should do—assuming unlimited time and resources—and what they can do. And many studios wait too long to make the call, putting severance and benefit extension at risk.

“In an ideal world, as companies mature they begin to carry a ‘war chest’ of working capital that can serve to protect against ‘shocks’ to their business model, industry, or economic prospects,” says attorney Richard Hoeg of Hoeg Law. “I think even Telltale management would have loved for that to have been the case. That ideal world, however, is often as far away for businesses as it might be for individuals—who generally would also like to have a bit more in their ‘rainy day’ checking account than they already do. In terms of a redline, it is not uncommon for more mature industries—and often more heavily regulated ones—to do ‘shock tests’ to war game out what might happen ‘if the Dow fell 1,000 points’ or ‘we lose our two primary contracts on the same day’, etc.

“Most companies are not, in my experience, so mature. In my career, I could not even count the number of times that a Series A or convertible debt round needs to be closed ‘by Friday’ in order to make payroll. A lot of companies run very close to the line; not necessarily out of malice, but because their management feels that bleeding edge expansion is the way they are going to succeed. Sometimes they are right. Often they are wrong.”

The human cost of shutting down

As Huffman writes in a recent blog post about business closure, “there will be blood.” Layoffs are an inevitability when a company finds itself in financial trouble. Whether a full shutdown is imminent or not, certain steps must be taken to ensure that employees are taken care of in accordance with the law.

Severance is not mandatory for employees, and it is rarely afforded to contractors (unless otherwise contractually stipulated). Final paychecks must be disbursed according to state law. Some locales require that at the time of dismissal. Others allow for compensation to be forwarded during normal payroll cycles.

The other big issue in the United States is continuation of health care benefits. If an employee was participating in company-supported health insurance, they are entitled to continue receiving those benefits by paying out of pocket through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (we just call it “COBRA”). This lasts for up to 18 months, but it isn’t cheap. Health insurance in America costs on average $440 for single coverage, according to eHealth. That balloons to nearly $1,200 if you have a full family. Mind you, this is an expense that emerges concurrently with losing an income.

In the case of Telltale, employees are even in the rare situation of losing access to their COBRA coverage just two months into the eighteen they should have been afforded. This is completely legal in the case of a company closure. Without an active health insurance contract between the provider and the employer, there’s no longer a plan for laid-off employees to utilize.

“Getting laid off is a qualifying event to get on a health plan not during open enrollment, so they can still go for insurance on the exchanges,” Huffman says. “It’s not a great position to be in.”

It’s impossible for an outsider to say if Telltale should have acted sooner in hopes of protecting employees and offering some form of severance. As Variety previously reported, there was a last-ditch effort to secure funding from AMC and Smilegate. With hopes this would come through, Telltale is assumed to have kept employees in the dark entirely.

“It is easy enough in hindsight to say that folks should have been told that things were this close, but here’s the issue: employees talk,” Hoeg explains. “If Telltale has a meeting in the weeks before a major financing event and tells employees that the company might not survive, the company’s primary asset, the reason financing sources would even choose to invest—it’s people—become more likely to start looking for another port in the storm, and likely tell someone like Variety about what’s going on. Once that happens, the chance of receiving that financing becomes much, much less likely. So, to prevent ‘a run on the bank,’ it is not at all unusual to keep employees in the dark on something like this, because that route leads to the highest probability of success.”

There is a worse scenario than what Telltale’s former employees suffered. In December 2017, “Marvel Heroes” developer Gazillion went under. It took with it any hope of severance or accrued vacation pay for its employees. This came after weeks of furlough (unpaid, enforced time off). Furlough is employment limbo. Staff technically still have a job (should the company ever get back on better financial footing), but they aren’t getting paid. In those cases, morale tanks and employees quickly polish their resumes in hopes of landing a new job before the ax falls for good.

Layoffs are never easy, especially when they are aligned with a company closure. Often employees are escorted quickly from the premises as a security measure, compounding the shock of job loss with being ushered from the building.

“That is why you saw stories of Telltale folks getting 30 minutes or being escorted out,” Hoeg explains. “In an IP-based company like a software developer, the assets—such as they are—can be moved on thumb drives or e-mails. Obviously, the optics could have been done better on something like this, but from the company’s perspective, you simply don’t know who’s going to throw a computer through a window and/or steal that in-development game with $15M in costs already expended.

“The obligations of the folks running the company change from operating for the benefit of the company’s equity holders to operating for the benefit of the company’s creditors—who by the very nature of such a determination will not be receiving full payment on what is owed to them in any scenario. So the initial steps are to avoid the incurrence of additional indebtedness—like owed payroll—and preserve the assets in the best way possible. Once you move into preservation mode, the best step is often to make sure access is completely locked down.”

Employees who haven’t been let go in the first wave, like the 25 that survived Telltale’s culling, will be retasked. Working for a company that is a going concern (expected to continue in perpetuity) is different than working for one in the process of shuttering.

“Anyone staying on after the layoff needs to be on the same page about expectations and deliverables,” Huffman says. “There will be a wind-down period and having a couple of people to assist with it can be critical. However, getting people to stay in a company they know to be closing can be a challenge. This meeting, then, could turn into an honest discussion about whether an employee is willing to do that, with a contingency in place to let them go and use contractors or third party vendors to fill their role in their absence.”

Steering clear of legal issues

There are a number of legal landmines that executives might accidentally step on. Telltale may have run itself afoul of the WARN Act, by stating that it wasn’t initiating a complete shutdown and that 25 employees would be continuing “foreseeable.”

“Congress passed a law called the WARN Act which forces companies to give 60 days notice to employees if they are either going to have a mass layoff or closure,” Hoeg explains. “California—applicable to Telltale—passed a similar law. The penalty for failing to give such notice is that the company owes the employees for the applicable notice period (so in the case of Telltale, the full 60 days). The most important exception to this for our purposes relates to a financing that falls through at the last minute. That exception only applies to a full ‘plant closing’—under the federal law—or ‘termination’ under the CA law. This is where Telltale ran into a bit of trouble when they tried to stay partially open. ”

Telltale may try and reframe its earlier statements and attempt to convince a California court that its initial layoffs as the start of a closure. Regardless, the suits will continue. Whether there will be any money available for plaintiffs is another matter entirely.

“If WARN applies—remember, it might not—I think they’ll settle,” Huffman says. “Just based on what I have seen, it doesn’t seem like Telltale will have enough in assets to defend a suit or fully payout a judgment, so it’s probably in everyone’s best interest to settle fast and get something rather than nothing.”

Shutting a company down is a process that involves communication with key vendors and stakeholders. Executives and board members need to let insurance providers know the company is closing and collect any outstanding monies owed via accounts receivable either directly or by selling the accounts to a collection agency.

Huffman also advises that contracts may guide the disposition of contracts. Some licensing agreements may dictate that company closure is tantamount to defaulting on the deal. In those cases, rights may revert. This is likely why some Telltale games, including “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic Park” were removed from sale upon the company’s notice of intent to liquidate.

Bankruptcy isn’t always the answer (or the end). A Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a company to reorganize and, possibly, get back on its feet. Chapter 7 bankruptcy, on the other hand, leads to full dissolution and liquidation. An assignment agreement, like Telltale has signed, has the same result as a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, without as much legal red tape.

Before the end, corporations need to settle any outstanding lawsuits. Any funds left over needs to be spent to reimburse secured debts (those with ties to specific assets). After that, a final tax return is filed and, should there be any funds left, shareholders will receive a disbursement.

From there, the pages of history are all that remain.

What about studios owned by large publishers?

Part of any discussion publishers have when considering acquiring, building, or growing a studio is about where to invest. Overhead and geography are considered, of course, and studios in competitive markets like San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, and Montreal are always at risk of high turnover. In regions where both opportunities abound and compensation is competitive, it’s harder to retain your best people.

These aren’t typically factors when closing a studio, though. Those decisions often start with prototyping progress, project viability, and talent mix.

While Telltale has been the focus of much of the layoff and shutdown conversation, it isn’t the only company to go through the process in the past few years. Capcom, Take-Two, Bandai Namco, EA, Activision, Sony, Microsoft, and more have shuttered studios.

It’s always somber. Lives, potentially hundreds of them, are instantly thrown into upheaval.

Mega-publishers are often considered the mustache-twirling victim during a shutdown. There’s a misconception among consumers that we’re in an empathy-free cycle of acquisition or studio creation and closure. There is little divide in contemporary game development culture between studio leadership and publishing decision makers. Studio leaders are often engaged in conversations from the beginning when layoffs or shutdown is a possibility.

Those same decisions go all the way to the top of most publishing companies. The CEO or a close subordinate is intimately involved, often helping to brainstorm ways to either keep a studio open or retain its people in other roles.

These decisions aren’t taken lightly, according to a representative from a major publisher. A number of factors are considered, with the chief among them being impact on the people working in the studios that might be affected.

When a decision is made to initiate a layoff or studio closure, it involves a number of departments. Human resources work to help transition staff, find internal job placements, and schedule job fairs featuring other studios and publishers. Studio leads and publisher representatives work to help wind things down and transition as many people as possible. The legal team is involved to ensure that everything is handled in accordance with federal and state statutes. The facilities and real estate departments help close the physical space and dispose of or relocate equipment.

Some companies work through a role-by-role internal search to match people with new opportunities at other studios owned by the publisher. In some cases, this can lower job loss at a closed studio by 50 percent or more. Some instances have even seen close to 100 percent placement in other roles both internal to the publisher and comparable in role and compensation.

If a role can’t be found, major publishers typically offer months of severance and benefit extension. This is variable based on a number of factors, including tenure and role prior to the layoffs.

Things to remember

Huffman and Hoeg both urge that studios plan for the end, even during good times. One missed milestone, a contract falling through, or a key investor pulling funding can cause a healthy ship to begin to capsize. No matter how big a company grows, it can be cut down with a few bad decisions or bad economic turn.

Hoeg summarizes Telltale and other companies that have soared high and crashed hard.

“[It] appears to be similar to that of every ‘VH-1 Behind the Music’ that ever was: a small, little-known talent is rocketed to success on the back of a one-hit wonder and their tastes expand to meet their newfound prominence without the slow growth curve necessary to really sustain that success,” he says. “It’s a tale you hear a lot in my neck of the woods—venture capital and technology. It’s not the start-up that kills you. It’s the success.”（source：variety）