Worms developer and publisher Team17 has agreed a partnership deal to publish Playtonic Games’ highly anticipated Yooka-Laylee title.
Yooka-Laylee is a spiritual successor to the classic N64 3D platformer Banjo-Kazooie. Currently in development by ex-Rare staff, Yooka-Laylee was crowdfunded in under 40 minutes.
“From the very start we said that we’d welcome only a partner that could genuinely improve the creation of our game, while respecting the independence and creative autonomy of our development team,” said Playtonic’s Creative Lead and Studio Head, Gavin Price.
By taking Team17 on board, Yooka-Laylee will benefit by getting “expanded localization, improved QA testing, certification and access to vastly better resources for our team,” Price explained.
Being able to now focus solely on the development of the game is also something Gavin Price alluded to in his statement. “Working alongside such a strong partner will allow the Playtonic team to focus 100% of our efforts on building the best possible version of Yooka-Laylee for backers and new fans alike,” he said.
Given that Playtonic was founded by ex-Rare members who worked on such classics as Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie and the wonderful Viva Piñata, the studio’s talent for designing highly playable games should be held in little doubt.What is uncertain, however, is whether the team is able to prove themselves outside of a company which has spent the last 3 decades under the careful eye of a major publisher.
That said, there’s no disputing Playtonic’s pedigree - a fact not lost on Team17. “We have deep respect for the team at Playtonic,” explained Debbie Bestwick, Team 17’s Managing Director. “They have a very rich heritage and have worked on titles close to the heart of a lot of our team here. I can’t wait to start working together on this great game and hope this is the start of a long term partnership between Team17 and Playtonic.”.
One thing that the partnership between Team17 and Playtonic won’t deliver - at least for now - is a physical release of Yooka-Laylee. Playtonic took to Twitter yesterday to clarify matters:
There are still no plans currently for a physical #YookaLaylee release - so don't put your pre-order down yet! http://t.co/XRKow9fW6j
— Playtonic (@PlaytonicGames) July 30, 2024
Yooka-Laylee is slated for release in October 2016 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, WiiU, PC, Mac & Linux.
Not familiar with Yooka-Laylee or why so many people are excited about it? Check out the video below, where PlayStation Access goes one-to-one with the game’s composer, Grant Kirkthorpe, and writer/ editor Andy Robinson.
