Fans of The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us developer Telltale Games were stunned last week when the studio announced that it would be laying off the majority of its staff, effectively closing down. Just as surprised by the announcement were the developer's employees who say that they were largely blindsided by the news. So blindsided, in fact, that one has filed a class action lawsuit over it.

The class action complaint against Telltale Games was filed in the California federal court this week by an ex-employee. Telltale stands accused of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, as it failed to notify employees about the layoffs in the appropriate timeframe (60 days). As such, the ex-employee is seeking 60 days' worth of wages and ERISA benefits for themselves and the other 275 employees who have been affected by the layoffs.

Speaking to GameDaily, Richard Hoeg, attorney at Hoeg Law, suggests that the penalty for Telltale could be "severe." Hoeg also notes that, while the WARN Act does offer an exception in the case that a company is seeking funding, this may not apply to Telltale. This specific exception typically tends to apply to the closure of plants rather than mass layoffs like those suffered at the game developer. It may also not apply to Telltale if it operates from one location. Moreover, Hoeg says that "there is no obviously applicable exception to the 60-day requirement that I can see from the outside," meaning Telltale could find itself in hot water over that too.

This is the second major legal challenge that Telltale is facing this year. Back in June, it was reported that co-founder and former boss Kevin Bruner had sued the company for breach of contract. The studio could certainly do without this additional headache and so it may act to get this business concluded as quickly as possible.

Though, regardless of the outcome of the class action lawsuit, Telltale still faces pressure from the wider games industry to pay its laid-off employees their wages. After the studio tweeted that it is looking to secure partners to complete the current season of The Walking Dead game, many, including God of War game director Cory Barlog, called for Telltale Games to first pay employees their severance packages and any other money that may be owed.

Source: Twitter, ClassAction, GameDaily