If I buy a second hand copy of a Telltale game do I get all episodes?

The common format for Telltale games is that the game is released in episodes. You can either buy the episodes individually or acquire a "season pass", which will grant all the episodes as they are released.

I have a good number of Telltale games on the Xbox 360, having played all episodes for certain games over the years.

I now have an Xbox One, and noticed that game discs are being released for most of these games. There is even a Minecraft Story Mode copy available despite the last episode not yet being released.

If I buy the physical disc on a platform (e.g. Xbox One), do I need to redeem a code to download the episodes?

If I buy a new copy, can I sell it on to a new owner so that they can play all the episodes?

Can I buy a cheaper, second hand copy and still play all the episodes?

I know there are a number of Telltale games, but I am interested in:

• Walking Dead Season Two
• The Wolf Among Us
• The Game of Thrones
• Tales from Borderlands
• Minecraft Story Mode

The only thing I have managed to find out is that the physical discs have sometimes been released before all episodes had been released, therefore some of these physical discs can not possibly contain all of the episodes without some form of download. I know this is the case for The Game of Thrones, as well as Minecraft Story Mode.

Please note, I am not referring to the additional 3 episodes (6-8) for the Minecraft Story Mode. It appears that you need to buy these episodes separately (or via an additional season pass that is effectively a bundle of the 3 episodes).

Solution 1:

From this post, it looks like the Season Pass is the disc itself. This implies that having a copy of the physical disc will grant you access to the full game.

From this thread,

highlight the disc game and go to the options of managing the game, from there you can download the season pass. Then run game of thrones and download all dlc. This works without the disc so if you gamefly the game then you can return in the same day

Although this specifically mentions the Telltale Game of Thrones game, this method should work with any "Season Pass Disc".

EDIT: I did a bit more digging and found this thread. This supports the original answer that yes, you will have access to all episodes regardless of whether the disc had a previous owner or not. However, according to this post, you can only play/access the content if the physical disc is in the console.

You get Episode 1 on the Disc then the built-in Season Pass will grant you access to the remaining episodes as and when TTG can be bothered to release them but you must download them via the in-game store else you will be charged for the new episodes. Also note that you can't play or access any of the episodes without the disc being in your console.

EDIT 2: I did even more digging and ended up on the Gamefly page for the Telltale Game of Thrones and found this disclaimer:

NOTE: Episodes 1-5 are included on disc. Episode 6 will be available to download from PSN while renting this game. Disc must be in tray to play any episode.

Since Gamefly is a rental service and there is a very slim chance (if there even is one at all) you will be given a new copy, they would not advertise it this way if you could not download the digital episodes not included on the physical copy.

EDIT 3: I finally found a credible source for this information. Here is a tweet from the Head of Creative Communications at Telltale Games explaining that the tradeable disc is the season pass itself.

"To clarify, @Minecraft: #StoryMode 'Season Pass Disc' is not a 'code in a box.' Tradable disc IS the pass itself!"

In short, yes you will be able to access all episodes with a preowned physical copy of a Telltale game, as the disc itself acts as the season pass that allows you to download all episodes not stored on the physical disc.