Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic is laying off over a dozen staff

Playtonic, the creators of Yooka-Laylee, is shedding a few of its employees, the developer and writer announced on social media. The put up does not point out what number of members of Playtonic will likely 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 on a LinkedIn post shared by Playtonic model supervisor Anni Valkama, the layoffs embody employees members who labored in manufacturing, numerous artwork departments, sport design, narrative design and UI/UX design. Playtonic solely lists round 50 employees members on LinkedIn, however given the studios progress right into a writer and its upcoming launch of Yooka-Replaylee, its doable the precise staff is a bit bigger.

Whereas Playtonic seemingly is not secure from the issues of funding and promoting video games that different builders have, hiring up for a brand new undertaking like Yooka-Replaylee after which laying these new hires off earlier than the sport is launched is a reasonably frequent observe. There isn’t any technique to know if that is the case right here with out extra data, nevertheless it’s value 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 provided that Playtonic was based by former builders from Uncommon, the creators of Banjo-Kazooie and newer hits like Sea of Thieves. Actually, most of the video games Playtonic has revealed underneath its “Playtonic Buddies” publishing label fall in that Uncommon candy spot, whether or not its the lovable action-adventure sport Lil Gator Sport or the troublesome platformer Demon Turf.