Yooka-Laylee made huge buzz when it hit Kickstarter a few months back and news has broken that developer, Playtonic Games, sporting a team made up of some of the best in the business, has partnered up with Team17 for a publishing deal. The Yooka-Laylee team includes some of the creative talent behind Banjo-Kazooie so you know that they have what it takes to develop an amazing platforming experience. Partnering up with Team17 will allow Playtonic to build on its hugely successful Kickstarter campaign – the biggest ever for a UK game studio – with additional resources designed to benefit development and add value to both existing Kickstarter backers and new fans.
When asked about the partnership deal Gavin Price, Creative Lead at Playtonic commented, “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. Team17’s 25-year industry-leading expertise will significantly benefit Yooka-Laylee in a myriad of ways, not least in expanded localisation, improved QA testing, certification and access to vastly better resources for our team. 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.”
In response, Debbie Bestwick, Team17’s Managing Director added, “We have deep respect for the team at Playtonic. They have a very rich heritage and have worked on titles close to the heart of a lot of our team here. We’ve been following their Kickstarter campaign with interest and are delighted to welcome them onto our label and into the Team17 family. 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.”
It’s comforting to know that Playtonic is 100% focused on bringing the best possible experience to fans. This is especially good news for the thousands of people who already backed the game over on Kickstarter. Regardless, when you’re talking about industry vets responsible for not only Banjo-Kazooie but Donkey Kong Country as well, you probably wouldn’t expect any less.
Yooka-Laylee is planned for an October 2016 release on PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and PC.