Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic is shedding over a dozen employees

Playtonic, the creators of Yooka-Laylee, is shedding a few of its employees, the developer and writer announced on social media. The submit does not point out what number of members of Playtonic will probably 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 embrace employees members who labored in manufacturing, varied artwork departments, recreation design, narrative design and UI/UX design. Playtonic solely lists round 50 employees members on LinkedIn, however given the studios development right into a writer and its upcoming launch of Yooka-Replaylee, its potential the precise crew is a bit bigger.

Whereas Playtonic doubtless is not secure 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 apply. There isn’t any technique to know if that is the case right here with out extra data, however 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 on condition that Playtonic was based by former builders from Uncommon, the creators of Banjo-Kazooie and newer hits like Sea of Thieves. In actual fact, lots 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 Sport or the troublesome platformer Demon Turf.