The Wolf Among Us 2 was pushed out of 2023 to avoid crunch, Telltale says

The Wolf Among Us 2 has been pushed back from 2023, developer Telltale confirmed in a tweet. In a similar interview with IGN, CEO Jamie Ottilie attributed the delay to efforts to avoid burnout and crunch. Additionally, the studio wants to avoid releasing an unfinished game as it moves development from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. The sequel to the popular episodic tale based on Vertigo fables series of graphic novels was previously announced at The Game Awards 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presented the newly founded company with a number of challenges.

The original for the uninitiated Treacherous Games Filed for bankruptcy in 2018, which led to this mass layoffs and cancellation of all planned releases – one of which is The wolf among us 2. However, in 2019, LCG Entertainment acquired Telltale’s assets and relaunched the company, which worked under some industry veterans and previous developers working on acclaimed titles such as: the Walking Dead And Batman: The Telltale Series. But even when the studio announced its much-anticipated project, the development team was still in its infancy and took about two years to fully staff. In the interview, Ottilie admitted that announcing the title in 2019 seemed like the right choice as it would help them secure funding and support. For the record, that short teaser was completely rebuilt. But looking back at the decision, he regrets it as the pandemic has slowed development and hiring.

Additionally, Telltale recently made the decision to switch Unreal engine 5. Ottilie explained that the developers and artists who worked on it Unreal engine 4 felt for years that the newer features were “worth the effort”. Of course, that means overhauling a large chunk of the game, leaving the team with two options – either release an unfinished game or force Crunch on their staff. Ottilie chose neither, instead pushing the game out of the 2023 release window.

“I’m done [crunch], and I don’t want to do it again, and it’s not fair to ask,” Ottilie said in an interview. “That’s why you can’t plan a business. So yes, part of this is maintaining a healthy work culture. We don’t want to burn out our good people. In the last two years it has been incredibly difficult to find recruits COVID and the job markets and growth in the gaming industry.” The wolf among us 2 is being developed with the support of AdHoc Studio, made up of former Telltale Games employees.

As a forerunner of fables Graphic Novels, The Wolf Among Us 2 is set six months after the events of the first game, with protagonist Bigby Wolf now leading an investigation into a new mystery – presumably starring Tin-Man and Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. The new chapter is set in a wintry New York blanketed in snow, with a new government led by Snow White. Last year the developers released a trailerwhich confirms that The Wolf Among Us 2 will intertwine the world and events of the Mundies (humans) and Fables (fairy tale characters).

Similar to previous Telltale Games entries, this game will be released in an episodic format (5 episodes) but won’t release until everyone is done. This prevents problems experienced with the older Telltale regime, where players had to wait months – until development was complete – to gain access to each new episode. However, with this new development format, all episodes should fall at a steady pace. Despite all of this, the studio still has The Expanse: A Telltale Series planned for release this year – created in collaboration with Nine Deck Games.

The Wolf Among Us 2 will now be released sometime in 2024.