Yooka-Laylee Dev Playtonic Is The Latest Studio Hit By Layoffs

Ah... that's very sad to hear, really loved both Yooka-Laylee games and their breaking of the 4th wall in their appearances in other games is really fun. I hope everyone is financially stable with this news.

More like, Yooka-Layoff. 😬

EVEN THE SMALLER STUDIOS?!

What is WRONG with this furshlugginer industry

People wonder why we are on number 21 of the Mario Series... This generation of gamers are hard to figure out when it comes to newer IPs and ones that say for years to come.

I want to preface this with the idea that freelancing in the film industry is a pain in the arse.

But I don’t understand why the game industry isn’t more like this, if a studio isn’t working on a project that requires Role Y, then why is Person Y employed there?

I’m astounded that the games industry hasn’t gone to this approach. On the other hand I wouldn’t wish it on people, I just can’t believe it hasn’t happened with the (what feels like) consistent rounds of layoffs at companies.

Again, not saying it should be. Surprised it isn’t. I welcome insight.

Both games are excellent too. Its just the casual gamer is hard to reach. Once you get that 7.9 from IGN you're ignored by the general population who think "$40 for a 7.9 is Not worth it." but spend $40 to look like naurtos father in fortnite

Personally, I wish more game developers would adopt Nintendo's approach, where the executives take a pay cut so no one has to get laid off. And frankly, this extends beyond the game industry and to business as a whole. It just seems like the CEO mentality is, "Little Timmy and his family are out on the streets, but I need another yacht." And it sickens me. The level of income inequality today is worse than it was before the French Revolution, and it's only getting worse. The question is, when will people finally stand up and say, "Enough is enough?"

@JumpingJackson In general it seems to be that game studios that maintain steady projects do this internally by keeping multiple small dev teams. Then they can tetris them around as needed. Keeps everyone employed and busy and makes it easier to not overhire for crunch. Japanese devs usually do it this way and they will often absorb a team that doesn’t have a project for a long time to put their expertise to work elsewhere. (With some shedding of folks that want to go their own way) Western devs often think more in shorter terms. Hiring and promoting big for a project but that leaves those positions at risk if the project isn’t successful (creating DLC and patch work) or a sequel isn’t greenlit.

I think the benefit to the Tetris approach is your job is “usually” stable and safer promotion path. But the pay increases are likely lower. The alternative is you likely (speculation here) get hired fast and likely get an attractive salary but you are on borrowed time unless you are a rockstar or your game makes lots of money.

Really, no one is safe now.

I'm actually not surprised. I don't know, from what these devs were living the past years.
Both Yooka games weren't the big banger, people hoped for. Both tried to copy older Rare games and kinda did it, but weaker.

When employees are "made redundant" it often means the employer has grown and acquired new teams where the same job functions may unnecessarily overlap. While it's sad for the team members who get laid off, it can actually signal the parent company is doing quite well, and in fact, expanding. This news does net necessarily mean anything dire for Playtonic at all.

"Yooka-Laylee Dev Playtonic Is The Latest Studio to Layoff Employees"

"Yooka-Laylee Dev Playtonic's Employees Hit By Layoffs"

Either of these avoids the frankly distasteful passive voice, imo, given the context. ✌️ (though it's worded like this every single time on this website. is this another British vs American English thing?)

EDIT-

And, unfortunately, things aren't getting any easier as layoffs continue to pummel the industry, with EA and Respawn taking a huge blow just a few weeks ago.

respectfully, this entire article is written as though the writer doesn't know what the word "redundant" means.

@AstroTheGamosian

"Little Timmy and his family are out on the streets, but I need another yacht." And it sickens me

this is it. how could a human being be "redundant?" its so repulsive.

This studio has developed nothing but two mediocre games in over a decade of existence with nothing on the horizon but a remaster with no release date. Sounds more like they are failing than the execs are trying to get bonuses.

@Bard88 Yeah it's not really surprising that their output can't sustain the company when it'd been 6 years since their last game and the only thing coming is a remaster.

@Dr_Lugae @Bard88

"A handful of staff at UK-based studio Playtonic ... are sharing messages on social media as they have been made "redundant" at the developer."

you both are talking like Playtonic has downsized, but "redundant" actually indicates that they have over-hired and are adjusting. 👍 (and are cynical, heartless, unimaginative, cold, and corporate.)

@Bard88 They also publish games under Playtonic Friends

I'm so tired of 2020s already and we're only halfway through. It's one bad news after another bad news and more bad news.

Could have been a fun release date buy. Oh well.

@Grail_Quest I wish this were true, but being in HR, often times your role is made redundant when you’re downsizing and you eliminate roles that are either no longer deemed needed or when multiple people do the same role so you reduce. I’m based on the USA, but when involved in UK role redundancies I believe they tell the person their role is being reviewed as redundant to which it goes through a 30 day review. If it’s found that their role is redundant after that period they are let go. It’s been a while since involved in a UK layoff so I could be remembering wrong.

@N00BiSH
It’s pretty simple, the persons job isn’t important enough to warrant keeping or the company isn’t making enough money to keep that many employees. Just how it works.

When people use blue sky to post about being laid off it tells me the layoffs were probably a good decision by the company. Here's to an overall stronger and more streamlined Playtonic!

Seems like gaming is an all or none business, especially when your team can only produce a game every few years. I hate for people to lose jobs but the "building/company" will always always come first.

Well they made two games and had Playtonic and Friends to assist other studios so not surprised. They haven't done much, probably staffed too much or whatever else going on.

To be honest another farm sim in a crowded genre and just as plain is not worth the dev time either. That's on them. Remaking their first game too, why bother. Try something else. Stick to others. Not just make Playtonic and Friends and have not enough to say 'this may not work insert studio staff'. But they don't say no so they have eh products and a cool Indie publisher but also not enough to maintain it or it's regular staff. I have questions.

Good on the staff leaving/in edge if they make it through.

But I question WHY! They would need to. What else is going on they won't tell us/made mistakes & didn't forsee them due to how pathetic game design is these days not just audiences expectations as well.

The staff to me these days Indie to AAA are just as questionable. Game design and practices. I barely have respect for them. Sometimes do, sometimes not depending.

What resources in the building, what staff decisions, and what staff pay rates. What is making it unbalanced is what needs to be focused on to better balance things. Not articles saying layoffs to make us feel for them when it goes deeper.

Audiences are just as much to blame it's why games are as pathetic as they are not just devs weak ideas/mentality.

Also this game did not need a remaster/expanded version yet they made 2 games and helped with others games or a program or whatever. They built up too much to quickly and I was confused why. I get the benefits of what they have done but in such a time it was questionable as well.

For smaller studios I don't take the layoffs as much as to me if they have things going on it's not the same as big studios focus on what they cut out and what expectations they have, QA or otherwise and disagreements or temp staff or whatever else of possibilities.

But how many people do they have, who had disagreements, who did they not need anymore.

Why do they keep staffing up and then going oh layoffs. Or is it journos that put the headlines, we know it doesn't always mean that but we take it as a bad thing most times then other factors.

I get it jobs are jobs but in some cases it isn't always a bad thing.

Unless it's bad company decisions.

To me why have more people if you can't handle it/don't need them. Or why have them spend too much on company food or other things they don't need but do put focus on.

Why do the design decisions throw them off and make things worse hmm I wonder why. It extends days and budgets more and more.

Like with money they want more and more and can't balance it and make a big deal out of it when they aren't getting more people/money yet don't sit and think enough why they need to balance it out more.

Do things that throw it off change yes, but at the same time I don't think it's always a bad thing layoffs, sometimes they don't need people, or they can better balance out jobs or better justify decisions of the games staff, marketing staff, other staff that aren't always acknowledged and more. They just don't sometimes and need to be better at it.

Then again if publishers are picky or they don't self publish it well that's also on them or the publishers being difficult with their expectations.

@AstroTheGamosian I agree. The rich get richer, we get the picture

@-wc- I think it's time you start your own website.

May I make a suggestion?

✌️The Nintendo Pedant✌️
(where frankness is oddly passive aggressive)

Think about it. I think you'd steal some readers from Nintendo Life.

Unless I was a dev in one of the CoD studios, I'd be scared stiff.

@beartown Same here. This decade stinks.

@JHDK

"When people use blue sky to post about being laid off it tells me the layoffs were probably a good decision by the company."

please expand 🤔

@speed_loafer

I f*cking love it, my friend 😍

Cheers! 🤘

EDIT - well in my excitement, I misspelled "Nintendo" so now I gotta go 90 days as "The Nintend Pedant" 😂😆

@The_Nintend_Pedant LOL! Too perfect. Thanks for the chuckle.

I suspect @JHDK suffers from the DOGE mind virus.

Huh, I thought they closed down a while ago.
Are they still mad about the whole Racist Safari thing?

I wonder if they'll ever work on a Banjo game.

@N8tiveT3ch nevermind YL's entire purpose is just succession and nostalgia?

Kinda expectable considering they haven't released anything since Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair(2019) and their only new project is a remaster of the first Yooka-Laylee. Only 2-3 years passed between the first game and the Impossible Lair, it's really weird that they had spent the last 5-6 years in a remaster.

@speed_loafer

they definitely do, but I am always curious to see if someone has anything to say after the opening statement. 👍 usually not, but I like to ask.

(in other words, instead of taking the bait, it's more fun to offer it 😆)

Okay, my first thought was: We've got AI and previous stock from games we already made for this....what are you doing here?....

Am.I wrong?

@The_Nintend_Pedant oh my goodness that’s hilarious 😅 don’t forget to change it when you can

@JHDK While Bluesky definitely has their nutters, I don’t think it warrants people to lose their jobs if they weren’t posting anything harmful.

I’m not surprised though, I haven’t heard any games coming from them except a remaster. I do hope people are able to bounce back on their feet quickly.

Being in the UK, wouldn't be surprised if the NI changes that kicked in are also a factor on top of one former dev saying they left before they were pushed because they already were seeing warning signs. The industry is on fire, they've not had the output to keep sustaining and getting hit by that one as well is easily one straw too many.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is an awesome game

I think the talent at this studio was woefully underutilized. They should have been contracted by a larger publisher (Nintendo) and given the resources to to make a AAA game in their style (Donkey Kong 3D platformer that isn’t Bananza)

Yeah While I love both Yooka-Laylee, they haven't released a new game in 4/5 years? I'm sure some people there don't need to work on a remake for that long.

@Zerodogg Ok. 👍 Hope you find help with whatever is bothering you in life, and I sincerely mean that!

Sad to see people lose jobs. Even sadder when it would likely be avoidable if those in control let them do anything other than flog the same old game.

shame this studio turned to publishing rather than game development, real waste of talent.

they should have made yooka laylee 2. replaylee is the same game.

Are you serious, are we considering "wish list performance" a success metric now, enough to help justify lay offs?

"disappointing wishlist performance of the upcoming Yooka-Replaylee."

Man game development really is a weird corpo hellscape.

@RupeeClock it's disappointing, but honestly who asked for a remake of YL?

That seemed such a random announcement, and they're even putting far more time and resource in it than necessary. That should have been a quick project to re-release the original with nicer graphics and some improvements while they focus more on the sequel, but it's treated as their next big game.

While I love YL and have bought it on day one on both PC and Switch, it's no wonder that it's not doing well.

@Koxen
Well that’s a sign of why of this happening considering how much more a sequel would cost hence why they’ve chosen this route and hoping it will generate enough sales for their next original game.

I love the first two Yooka games but Replaylee seems to have stolen all their momentum, as GoldenSunRM astutely pointed out.

Looks grim. They're in bad shape and their hope rests with a remake of a game that didn't blow the doors off at retail to begin with. I hope they can pull through because I am still looking forward to Replaylee and (fingers crossed) a 3rd game in the series.

@The_Nintend_Pedant redundant and redundancy is the term used in the UK, and it refers to the role rather than the individual. But we're quite lazy with our own language and usually skip the bit about it referring to the role and just say "I've been made redundant" or "EA made 400 people redundant". It's not meant as an insult on the individuals, if anything it's more a damning statement on the employer's uncaring view of it's employees. There is often an implied air quotes on the word.

But either way this is all mismanagement and pure corporate greed. The EA example, their CEO takes home $25million a year. He could have reduced that to $10million, kept every single one of those jobs and still been one of the richest people in the industry.

While the original Yooka-Laylee was a fun title, it wasn't a widespread hit, so choosing to focus on a remake feels like a strange move. Besides, considering it was released only eight years ago, it's a bit soon for a remake to really capture my interest.

Still sad to hear news like this of course.

Love this studio but they haven't released a game in years and the first game they announce after the second Yooka game is a Remake of the first which I still feel was a terrible decision vs a new IP.

Hope the Remake sells well but they need to get that out asap.

they kinda deserve it tho, who came up with the idea to remake Yooka-Laylee?! Just make part3...

Not a fan of Yooka Laylee but I enjoyed a game they published called Lil Gator Game, hope this doesn’t effect the DLC.

@The_Nintend_Pedant I’ll help.

-x-

“disappointing wishlist performance of the upcoming Yooka-Replaylee”

If it was a new game I’d probably buy it as I enjoyed 1 & 2. But I am done with double dipping for minor improvements.

I blame the leadership of this company, it had success and then diluted the business model failed to continue momentum with new titles and palmed us off with a HD makeover.
This doesn’t cut it in today’s world.
I loved the first game, didn’t click with the second and don’t want a HD remaster.
Just give me a third game similar to the first.
I still feel this company should have be picked up by Nintendo before tencents involvement, now Nintendo will never touch them.

@JHDK You sound like a bigot who's salty he's a waste of space.

@Stormcloudlive
They were in other games?

Anyway, rather upsetting. Part of the Rareware legacy is fading further.

"disappointing wishlist performance", do they really take this as a metric? Nonsense, just put this on a cartridge for Switch 2 and I'll be there day one, no wishlists here just immediate cash.

@Mariotag Yeah they got added into a very good smash clone called Brawlout, it's available on most platforms. Can be gotten on very significant discount at times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p7_s9xzN0g

It's a good smash clone and the roster has some really cool cameo fighters in there. The main character from Guacamelee is featured as well.

It sucks, but that is business.

Most people who complain are the ones buying these games dirty cheap in sales (and never playing), so they are all part of the problem.

I HATE to hear this. I liked the original Yooka Laylee, adored the Impossible Lair and am really looking forward to the remake.

Super lame for those affected but I agree with the assessment already shared, I didn't think anyone was asking for a remake. The original was already a looker, as was impossible lair, adding new lighting and textures is cool, but not as cool as a new game.

@mouseclicker Please let me know what I said that was bigoted.

Well seeing as the original is still available and the remake adds a few visual tweaks and other expanded content that an update can just offer like OG and Impossible Lair had, why bother.

The game isn't that old or a generation inaccessible either there are no PS3/360/Wii U versions or anything.

Why would people remake a game that's still accessible and discounted a fair amount, still playable and an expanded version is being offered they want people to give money to. I get making a new game isn't easy to do (or on the scale they want to make then other options they could make in such a time) but even still.

They could have offered better marketing for the with Friends label games, could have offered DLC levels or something.

But nope.

What did they expect for wishlisting.

Besides the audiences that did or didn't like the original and did Impossible Lair even though the 3D platformer was coming back and even then I liked the OG and wasn't great at Banjo but it doesn't change much either.

It was good but they are asking too much and think people are dedicated fans, some are but not a large audience.

Not all of us will sympathy pay for a game that's cheap a lot and expanding it's content/graphics.

Think about it Playtonic, your trying to get people that are aware of back compat not casuals that have no clue. I think we know as a platformer audience what is out there and how accessible on platforms to purchase they are. XD

Some devs are just not thinking at all.

For me they took up the old Rare idea of making games slowly, but without the quality. I'm not sure why they are so hell-bent on making Yooka-Laylee 'a thing'. Neither game did that well, and it seems way too soon for a remake.

I hope everyone who lost their job finds something else soon.

I am looking forward to Replaylee since it will hopefully turn the first game into what it should have been all along but still, I think the choice to remaster a game that isn’t that old/inaccessible and wasn’t a huge critical success to begin with is odd. I guess their next game (Yooka Laylee 2 hopefully) is proving to be bigger than they expected and need the extra cash so I guess putting together a remaster would help but even still I’m not sure what the sales potential for that would really be all things considered.

Really hope things get turned around for them; Impossible Lair is probably my favourite platformer of the Switch generation. Would be like the second death of Rare if they go under.

@RupeeClock Yes!! They started strong with Demon Turf and I thought every single game would be a banger, like BigMode. Then I played "A Little Golf Story," a subpar mobile game port, and the illusion was broken. I'd prefer if they were lifting up developers that match their identity better.

theres something about the aesthetic of most new indie games thats soulless. just from that thumbnail Id never waste my money on that. its good ppl arent buying junk.

The transparency is appreciated(even if the decision still sucks).

I'm sorry for them. But to be honest, I played both and were disappointed. The first Yooka was an OK attempt to copy Banjo Kazooie.
The 2nd game was mediocre at best and also a very uncreative copy of DK Country. What were they expecting?

TBH I thought it sounded too ambitious when they first announced they were expanding as a publisher. Not that I've kept up with that endeavor at all. Sad news, but not surprising. Hope those affected find new work soon.

@BASEDSAKRI Ah someone who likely enjoys the latest CoD's, I see...

Why does every game dev have to put out such a cringe statement when they lay people off.

If these people were so so talented, they might be making games that make actual cash money. But, no.

@The_Spanner Very often it's the leadership's fault, not the employee's fault.

@GoldenSunRM Yeah also I don’t think any company who's ever relied on a remaster or remake to change their fortunes has actually had it pay off.

It didn't work for Alphadream (Mario & Luigi SSS and BISDX), it didn't work for Square Enix with the FF7 remake trilogy which was supposed to be their break glass in case of emergency. It didn't work for Jonathan Blow (Braid Anniversary).

And all of the originals were more widely acclaimed than Yooka-Laylee.

@fenlix Yup, a lot of times this is the higher-up and a division's leadership's fault. They higher a ton of workers and decide to make a game that's completely out of scope. They sometimes have no real idea on the finances that come with running a business and creating a product. So they overscale their game development, put years into learning new tools, and after like 6+ years still have no game to show for it.

It's more nuanced than that, obviously. And I'm sure it's difficult to manage all of it. But it kind of baffles me that within the 8 years or more after Yooka-Laylee, all they managed to get out was a 2D platformer. And their new game is just an improved version of their first title.

I think getting into publishing was a hope to gain some revenue as they were losing tons of money in game development. These companies need to reevaluate how game development works. Choose a tool, stick to it, and reuse assets. Don't start from scratch with every new game. Not every game needs to be this 100+ hour open world epic. Not every game needs ground breaking visuals. Quick asset reusing sequels are A-okay as long as there's improvements and good creative direction.

@fenlix sometime, sometimes not. People like to blame "leadership" or "management" but things can go wrong at all levels at once. Certainly the atrocious loading times for the 2nd switch game weren't a failing of management were they.

I'm thinking the whole studio was poor from bottom to top.

Welp, not paying for another Playtonic product ever again, they clearly see their employees as cattle and the people up there probably gave themselves bonuses.

@Chlocean Eh, Demon Turf was kinda bad, personally. The controls were slippery, even with readjustments.

@WiiWareWave eh not really a big fish guy. bass is ok.

@BASEDSAKRI Hahaha, that was a brilliant comeback to my snark! Cheers! 🤣

Sadly nobody is guaranteed a job anymore. If you choose to work in creative types of jobs, like videogames, there is significantly less job security and far more competition. Working for a videogame studio is like risking it all for something you love. It's sad, but this can mean stints of unemployment.

Nintendo, purchase now!

Granted, I don't know squat about running a game dev studio, but I can't imagine it helping a lot when your studio exists for 11 years and you haven't released anything in.. 5 year? 6? On top of making fairly niche games in the first place. Like, I wanna know how those guys even kept afloat without layoffs for this long.

I saw this news on one of my social media apps earlier. It is a shame for sure because I honestly have enjoyed both of the Yooka-Laylee games. Layoffs will be a harsh reality during our curing gaming climate.

more layoffs are incoming imo. The industry is slowly becoming unsustainable and charging extra will not solve the problem.
and remastering or remaking one of the two games you have developed over the last decade isn't gonna cut it imo.

I really liked the second Yooka-Laylee game but not the first, even though in general, I prefer 3D platformers. I really hope that Replayee shores up the game design of the first game.

But still... their output has been quite low. What have they even been doing the last six years? Mostly publishing stuff, I guess, and they have released stuff that I like a lot, like Demon Turf and to a lesser extent, Lil' Gator Game, but not a lot of in-house development.

Just take the summer off and relax, that is why there is employment insurance.

LayZeee developer
took the money and ran....
Justice, well karma