The studio behind games like The Walking Dead and Tales from the Borderlands suddenly laid off 225 employees last week, leaving behind a 25-person skeleton crew to tie up the firm's "obligations to its board and partners"

According to a report from The Verge, many former employees are saying they were let go with no severance.

Following a great deal of social media speculation, the studio released a formal statement on Twitter confirming the news:

"Today Telltale Games made the difficult decision to begin a majority studio closure following a year marked by insurmountable challenges. A majority of the company’s employees were dismissed earlier this morning, with a small group of 25 employees staying on to fulfil the company’s obligations to its board and partners."

CEO Pete Hawley then issued the following statement:

"It's been an incredibly difficult year for Telltale as we worked to set the company on a new course. Unfortunately, we ran out of time trying to get there. We released some of our best content this year and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but ultimately, that did not translate to sales. With a heavy heart, we watch our friends leave today to spread our brand of storytelling across the games industry."

The full version of this story was first posted over on our sister-site PocketGamer.biz