Playtonic, the creators of Yooka-Laylee, is shedding a few of its workers, the developer and writer introduced on social media. The publish would not point out what number of members of Playtonic shall be effected, however does credit score the layoffs to the corporate’s wrestle with “a interval of profound change in how video games are created and funded.”
Based mostly on a LinkedIn publish shared by Playtonic model supervisor Anni Valkama, the layoffs embrace workers members who labored in manufacturing, numerous artwork departments, recreation design, narrative design and UI/UX design. Playtonic solely lists round 50 workers members on LinkedIn, however given the studios progress right into a writer and its upcoming launch of Yooka-Replaylee, its doable the precise group is a bit bigger.
Whereas Playtonic seemingly is not protected from the issues of funding and promoting video games that different builders have, hiring up for a brand new venture like Yooka-Replaylee after which laying these new hires off earlier than the sport is launched is a reasonably widespread follow. There isn’t any option to know if that is the case right here with out extra data, nevertheless it’s price stating.
Yooka-Laylee was pitched as a religious sequel to Banjo-Kazooie and different character-focused action-platformers when it debuted on Kickstarter in 2015, maybe unsurprising on condition that Playtonic was based by former builders from Uncommon, the creators of Banjo-Kazooie and newer hits like Sea of Thieves. In reality, most of the video games Playtonic has printed beneath its “Playtonic Buddies” publishing label fall in that Uncommon candy spot, whether or not its the lovable action-adventure recreation Lil Gator Recreation or the troublesome platformer Demon Turf.
