Former CEO Of TellTale Files Lawsuit Against The Company
Legal drama is afoot at one of the largest publishers of adventure games. Former Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner is suing the company after his involuntarily departure last year. Bruner, along with Dan Connors, and Troy Molander was one of the original co-founders of the company and served as CTO before becoming head honcho in 2015. Pete Hawley, former vice president of Zynga, now serves as TellTale CEO.
His outing allegedly came about as part of a disagreement with their largest investor, Lionsgate Entertainment Group. Lionsgate facilitated a restructuring of Telltale’s board of directors and wanted to bring in Hawley as CEO. Bruner’s suit contends that he is owed compensatory damages after his expulsion. Bruner’s contract allegedly stated that he was entitled to information regarding the value of his shares that he intended to sell off, but that the company had cut communication with him entirely and withheld this information from him.
In response, Telltale called the accusations “meritless” and came about “as an apparent means of extracting revenge on a company already under financial strain.” Bruner’s lawyer refuted the claim and according to The Marin Independent Journal, the Judge ruled that there are issues that require further examination. This ruling came about as the developer tried to initially defeat the lawsuit and rejected the attempt.
The company inaugurated Hawley as CEO last November as Bruner was dismissed from the board and announced a layoff of over 90 employees. Bruner has had a fair amount of criticism levied against him from inside sources. These sources told The Verge that Bruner had toxic methods that drove out some of Telltale’s best talent. However, Bruner disputed these claims saying that game development is a complex and demanding process that isn’t suited for everybody.
With that being said, a compromise will not be reached until July 17th when the two sides meet before the judge. Well, that’s certainly an unexpected occurrence and so far, it’s not looking to good for either side. Based on the information present, who do you think the judge should side on? Telltale recently received acclaim for the second season of its Batman series and will release the first episode of its final season of The Walking Dead in August.
Colin Regan239 Posts
Colin is a freelance writer for DFTG with previous bylines at other media outlets such as Twinfinite.
