The latest casualty in Tellale's closure is none other than Minecraft: Story Mode, which is arguably one of the best licensed games to ever come out of the studio.
In a news release on the official Minecraft website, Mojang announced that seasons 1 and 2 of the series will no longer be supported, and current owners of the game will have until June 25th to secure their downloads. After that, Minecraft: Story mode will be no more.
“On behalf of the publisher, Minecraft: Story Mode - A Telltale Games Series, Season 1 and 2 will no longer be supported on June 25th, 2019. If you have purchased these seasons, please download all remaining episodes prior to the service being discontinued in June."
Not being particularly versed in the legalities surrounding a licensed game, I can't really speak to how standard this sort of outcome is in the case of Telltale's closure or why a game like Minecraft: Story Mode has to be liquidated as part of the process. What I do know, however, is that it feels entirely unnecessary for it to have come to this.
Throughout the last several months since Telltale's closure, I have begrudgingly accepted the loss of some of the studio's most prolific and defining games. The systematic purging of Telltale's entire body of work has been depressing to behold, and to think that it's probably the result of some avoidable, bureaucratic non-sense only adds insult to injury.
The truth is, I know that Mojang could keep Minecraft: Story Mode available if they wanted to. Their pockets are essentially bottomless, and nobody would fight them over the rights of their own IP, so it wouldn't be outside of their capabilities to simply publish the game on their own. They are just choosing not to.
Their inaction in this regard is especially egregious because Minecraft: Story Mode did so much to improve its source material, adding a narratively-interesting story and compelling lore to what was otherwise a building sandbox devoid of any kind of overarching storyline. In the case of Story Mode, I didn't think I would ever feel so emotional over digital legos, but Telltale gave that experience to me - for better or worse.
All that being said, I can't help but feel sad that others who have not had a chance to experience Minecraft: Story Mode, or any of Telltale's many other masterful contributions to interactive storytelling, may never get the opportunity to do so.
