The Wolf Among Us 2 is still in development, says Telltale, after having to remind the internet at large that “unsubstantiated Reddit threads” don’t mean a game’s getting shut down, no matter how bad things have looked in past years.
This news comes from Eurogamer, who reached out to the developer after Glitched published a story hounding after rumours spread via a (since-deleted) Redditor by the name of Fabulous_Abrocoma_41, who claimed:
“I’ve heard from a source close to the development team at Telltale Games that The Wolf Among Us 2 is in serious trouble due to budget constraints … while the project hasn’t been officially cancelled yet, they’re at a critical point where they might have no choice but to shelve it.”
Telltale, presumably taking a long drag of a thematically appropriate cigarette—staring into the middle-distance with heavily ringed eyes under some sexy noir lighting—responded to Eurogamer with the following: “As a rule, we don’t comment on rumours and unsubstantiated Reddit threads … development on The Wolf Among Us 2 continues and we’re excited to share more about the game with Telltale fans and our community when the time is right.”
Seems like those rumours were a dud—as these things tend to be—but for once, I can’t exactly blame your average layman for buying in. To say that The Wolf Among Us 2 has had a troubled development would be like saying that a highway pile up has had a mild impact on traffic. And that’s a blithe likeness I draw despite very much enjoying the first game, and hoping that this next one makes it here sometime in the next century.
To paint a proper picture: The Wolf Among Us 2 was originally meant to come out in 2018, around six years ago, though obviously, Telltale shutting down gunked up those gears—until the studio opened those doors (sans most of its staff) in 2019 again.
It would then announce at the 2020 game awards that The Wolf Among Us was still happening, but that it’d need some considerable time in the oven before it’d be ready. Then, two years later in 2022, we got a proper trailer—though Telltale was insistent it’d “ship it when it’s right”. A year later, in 2023, the studio said it was delaying it until 2024, because Telltale wanted to protect the health of its team and that “if we put this game out and it’s not ready, we’re going to get torn to shreds”. In October of the same year it then proceeded to lay off “most” of its staff. Uh oh.
Still, there’ve been reassurances since—we got some new pictures in April this year. And, look, I’ve got plenty of sympathy for the folks at Telltale, in all its various configurations over the past half-decade. But after six years of “at the right time” and “when it’s ready”, I can’t help but wonder when the stars will align. At the very least, it doesn’t shock me that a rumour got far enough to require dismissal via Telltale’s very own PR. The Wolf Among Us 2 is still due to come out sometime this year, probably.
