The Wolf Among Us 2 Pushed Back Again

Well, brace yourself, my fellow gamers, because it seems like we’ll have to wait a bit longer to return to the dark and twisted world of The Wolf Among Us 2. Sadly, Telltale Games has just pulled the old switcheroo and delayed the release of the highly anticipated sequel yet again. Now, it’s been pushed back to 2024. At least they’re doing it for a good cause. They want to spare their team from becoming human-shaped blobs of exhaustion and to give their creative genius a chance to shine by switching to Unreal Engine 5. So let’s give them a break, shall we? After all, good things come to those who wait, right?

Jamie Ottilie, the CEO of Telltale Games, spoke about the delay. They’ve delayed the game for several reasons. But primarily, this is because they don’t want to release The Wolf Among Us 2 as an unfinished title and want to avoid the staff burning out. Here’s what Jamie Ottilie said:

“Making games is difficult and they need time to be right. And it doesn’t do any of us any good to ship something that’s not ready.”

According to Jamie Ottilie, the Telltale Games CEO, building a studio during a pandemic is like trying to build a sandcastle during a hurricane. It’s not exactly a cakewalk. Previously, LCG Entertainment brought Telltale Games back from the dead in 2019, and they unveiled The Wolf Among Us 2 a year later at The Game Awards. However, the studio was still embryonic, with the game being in pre-production and not using any previously developed material. Plus, the new studio was roughly two years away from being fully staffed. But, they had to announce it early to help secure funding and support for the new initiative. Was this the right choice?

The Wolf Among Us Release 2

Image: Telltale Games

Well, hindsight gave Jamie Ottilie a different view. In fact, he admitted that he might not have made the same decision if he had known about the pandemic and other impending factors.

But as Ottilie puts it, The Wolf Among Us 2 has been moving along like a snail on a treadmill since then. However, the studio recently switched from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal 5, much to the delight of many on the team, especially the engineers and artists. Apparently, Unreal 5 has some pretty sweet features that make it worth the effort. However, this switcheroo means they’ll have to redo a boatload of work already done in Unreal 4. Talk about taking one step forward and two steps back!

Following this, Jamie Ottilie said the studio had two choices if they would release the game in 2023. Either they release an unfinished version of the game, or they’d “crunch” the staff. Apparently, the original Telltale studio faced crunching repeatedly, so they were keen to avoid it this time. Here’s what else he said about their choices for The Wolf Among Us 2:

“If we put this game out and it’s not ready, we’re going to get torn to shreds. The expectations are pretty high, and we want time to meet those and we want to be proud of it and know that, ‘Hey, this is the best game we could have made.’ Let the world say what they will it’s done, but at least we know that in these times, in these conditions, this is the best game that we could make.”

Why did Telltale Studios close?

Image: Telltale Games

According to Jamie Ottilie, crunch was not a choice for The Wolf Among Us 2. 

“I’ve done , and I don’t want to do it again, and it’s not fair to ask it. You can’t plan a business around it. So yeah, part of it is about maintaining a healthy work culture. We don’t want to burn out our good people. It has been incredibly difficult to recruit the last two years between COVID and the labor markets and the growth in the games industry. So certainly, burning people out or grinding them down is the wrong thing to do long-term. It’s not how you build a business. And as an industry, we’re terrible about it. We burn our people out. We burn our best people out faster. And as an industry, if we’re going to continue to grow, we have to stop it. We just have to stop doing it and make better choices.”

So, it seems we won’t get the game until 2024. But hey – we’re sure The Wolf Among Us 2 will still be a great game! In the meantime, Telltale is working on several other titles.

Hi! I'm Arvyn, and I'm an English teacher from the UK. I've been teaching English online for over 4 years to students from all across the world and all ages. Outside of work, I'm a huge fan of reading, video games, and playing with my adorable kitties. See ya!