Removal of Walking Dead from GOG

[lexluthermiester]

Just got an email from GOG stating the following;

But the games are still up. For how long, who knows..
https://www.gog.com/games?devpub=telltale_games&page=1&sort=release_asc&search=walking dead&utm_campaign=20181120_The_Walking_Dead_series_removal_EN&utm_content=20181120_The_Walking_Dead_series_removal_EN+CID_15012b5c1eb64be29c403b078fef6f13
If you want them, now's the time.

 

[DirtbagDave]

The end of TellTales legacy begins. I wonder if this is strictly related to the TellTale games or if Overkills walking dead has a similar fate soon enough.

 

[rtwjunkie]

The end of TellTales legacy begins. I wonder if this is strictly related to the TellTale games or if Overkills walking dead has a similar fate soon enough.

It’s only Telltale that went belly up overnight, so it should only be their games.

 

[lexluthermiester]

It’s only Telltale that went belly up overnight, so it should only be their games.

Still why remove these games specifically? None of the other Telltale games, for example Back To The Future, Guardians of the Galaxy or the Minecraft Story Mode titles, are taken down.. It's weird that just The Walking Dead titles are being removed..

https://www.gog.com/games?devpub=telltale_games&page=1&sort=popularity

 

[rtwjunkie]

Still why remove these games? None of the other Telltale games, for example Back To The Future, Guardians of the Galaxy or the Minecraft Story Mode titles, are taken down.. It's weird that just The Walking Dead titles are being removed..

Good question. I didn’t even think of that. Indeed, it should affect all their titles.

The good news is that for those who already purchased their TWD series, they still keep them.

 

[DirtbagDave]

Still why remove these games specifically? None of the other Telltale games, for example Back To The Future, Guardians of the Galaxy or the Minecraft Story Mode titles, are taken down.. It's weird that just The Walking Dead titles are being removed..

https://www.gog.com/games?devpub=telltale_games&page=1&sort=popularity

Honestly this is the reason I was wondering if it was a Walking Dead IP issue surrounding video games rather than a strict TellTale problem. Very weird way of approaching things.

 

[lexluthermiester]

The good news is that for those who already purchased their TWD series, they still keep them.

Oh of course! That's one of the reasons I love GOG. When you buy a game, you own it for life, even if a publisher goes belly up and/or pulls a weird move like this.

Honestly this is the reason I was wondering if it was a Walking Dead IP issue surrounding video games rather than a strict TellTale problem. Very weird way of approaching things.

Good point, that's an interesting thought.

Additionally; I can verify that at least for now, the games are still for sale as I just bought the titles in this series that I didn't already have and were on my wish list.

So folks, if you want them, grab them now!

@R-T-B
Might be worth putting a short article up to give people an quick opportunity to grab while the chance is still there.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Probably has something to do with AMC or whoever else owns the rights - since they actually own the rights to The Walking Dead and requested them to be pulled from GoG. Most likely it came down to a licensing agreements (money).

A similar thing has happened to other games, for example: the Transformer games were pulled from Steam some time ago at the request of Activision (they developed the games, but don't own the rights to Transformers - Hasbro and the creator does). You can still buy a couple of the games digitally on Amazon.com and it requires a Steam activation, according to the DRM tied to the games in the information on the amazon pages:

Transformers: War for Cyberton
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Weird shit happens with all this stuff sometimes. You can't buy the Transformer games on Steam, but you can through Amazon digital games. However, you need Steam to play the games......

 

[rtwjunkie]

Probably has something to do with AMC or whoever else owns the rights - since they actually own the rights to The Walking Dead and requested them to be pulled from GoG.

I just read that Robert Kirkman’s studio will finish the series, so that the Telltale games’ story Isn’t left unfinished. Let me see if I can find the link again. That’s sounds like a reason Telltale can’t be the name used to sell the story.

https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/skybound-telltale-the-walking-dead-1202971245/

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Still why remove these games specifically? None of the other Telltale games, for example Back To The Future, Guardians of the Galaxy or the Minecraft Story Mode titles, are taken down.. It's weird that just The Walking Dead titles are being removed..

Because license. There's likely something in the language of TTG's contract that if TTG goes under, the license to distribute digitally goes with it. If someone buys the games from TTG, they'll have to acquire a new license with Robert Kirkman et. al.

Kirkman could buy the games from TTG and self-publish Season One and Two (along with presumably Three). They are too valuable to be removed from GOG forever. It's just in legal limbo for now.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Because license. There's likely something in the language of Telltale's contract that if Telltale goes under, the license to distribute digitally goes with it. If someone buys the game from Telltale, they'll have to acquire a new license with Robert Kirkman et. al.

But then why are the other games still for sale? I'm willing to bet there's a license issue somewhere but it can't be with all of the Telltale titles or they'd all be going down as well.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Weird shit happens with all this stuff sometimes. You can't buy the Transformer games on Steam, but you can through Amazon digital games. However, you need Steam to play the games......

Those keys were likely sold to Amazon by Steam before the license expired. Amazon/Steam has to treat them like physical goods--they're not revocable.

But then why are the other games still for sale? I'm willing to bet there's a license issue somewhere but it can't be with all of the Telltale titles or they'd all be going down as well.

Because they're all licensed by their respective owners and every license has its own contracts with specific language. Walking Dead basically had a dead man's switch clause...which is rare. Usually licenses are for a period of time (years).

 

[rtwjunkie]

But then why are the other games still for sale? I'm willing to bet there's a license issue somewhere but it can't be with all of the Telltale titles or they'd all be going down as well.

Read what I added about Kirkman’s finishing the games. That makes it very likely to be what Ford said. He’s not going to keep licensing to a defunct studio.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Or yeah, they might have already reached a new agreement where TTG rescinds its rights to sell the games because it sold the games to Kirkman et. al. for a price already. We'll know if that's the case if they show back up on stores soon under a different publisher.

 

[Gorstak]

Something similar happened to Fallout trilogy. I think Bethesda pulled rights. They offered all three for free for a short while and are still available there.