Zombies are officially big business once again. Whereas Romero would've been the proverbial "name" in the genre (I'd argue he still is, but that's my Pittsburgh bias for you), that title now belongs to Telltale and Kirkman, who've managed brought the dead from the grave and back into popular culture.
When more "mainstream" media, which still tends to paint a picture of "gamers" as an ostracized, pale, basement dweller sort of bunch, features an interview with an up and coming game developer in the case of Wall Street Journal speaking with Telltale Games' CEO Dan Connors, congratulations, because said developer has officially earned worldwide recognition, and rightly so.
The 5 episode series earned the accolades of "Game of the Year" by Metacritic, Wired, even USA Today. It was recently revealed that since it's Spring debut, the series managed to sell over 8.5 million, an impressive feature for any game. As a more simple point and click style game, it may not have won any awards for breakthrough gameplay, but it did spin quite the yarn. Using two brand new characters not seen in either the show or comic, it managed to keep millions on the edge of their seats, and eager to get their hands on each new episode. Its simple gameplay only served to make it more accessible to folks not typically seen as "gamers."
"Next time anyone questions the video game industry's ability to tell stories akin to movies and television, point them to Telltale Games' brilliant interactive adventure," wrote USA Today.
The game also gave a rise to mobile gaming platforms, like the iPhone and iPad, as serious platforms for gamers. The Apple devices claimed about a quarter of the total sales for Telltale's Walking Dead episodes.
Telltale managed to find a balance between gameplay that suits mobile devices just as well as it suits home consoles like the 360 and PS3. It also seems to have found Telltale a nice niche business model as well. Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Telltale's Connors said, "Our games work on every platform - it increases the amount of people we're speaking to. The key is just getting a game that can work across all those different demographics, and certainly iOS is a massive opportunity and a huge place for an independent publisher to sell directly to consumers."
While Connors admits that there's more money in the console market, he believes that the mobile gaming market is growing faster, and in the end, more preferential. "The tablets, for us, as a story-based gaming company, that's the perfect form factor for someone to sit down and enjoy an episode."
At the same time, the amount of money transacted from a console games perspective is still a lot larger than the money in iOS and mobile space."
As they're clearly doing well with the franchise, Telltale has no plans to slow down with The Walking Dead. As a matter of fact, they have a whole other season of episodes planned. They're currently figuring out how players can incorporate their old saved games into the new season.
