Team 17 To Publish Yooka-Laylee, Eyeing Retail Release

Team17 signs on as Yooka-Laylee publisher, wants to take game to retail

By Kris Wouk July 30, 2015

Earlier this year, the minds behind the Banjo-Kazooie series brought a spiritual successor to the classic Nintendo 64 platformers to Kickstarter. Titled Yooka-Laylee, the game’s initial goal of $240,041 was smashed in 40 minutes. By the time the campaign had finished, it had raised over $3.2 million.

While that is certainly a whole lot more money than developer Playtonic Games asked for, much of it will go to fulfilling the Kickstarter campaign’s many stretch goals. Beyond simply filling the Kickstarter orders, the game needs to sell in order to allow the studio to make future games. To that end, Playtonic has joined up with Team 17, publisher of the Worms series and indie charmer The Escapists.

“Team17 has significant experience in making the most of releasing a game,” Playtonic head Gavin Price said, speaking to MCV. “Personally I feel it would be a great shame if after our great Kickstarter success, we delivered on our promise of a great game and then it underperformed sales-wise because we didn’t have the knowledge, or made a mistake in the way we released or marketed the game.”

Publisher Team 17 is bringing more than experience to the table. In addition to having published several games, the company has relationships with manufacturers and retailers that could lead to actual boxed copies of Yooka-Laylee making their way to store shelves.

“There is a large demand for a physical game,” Team 17’s Debbie Bestwick said. “Playtonic took the decision not to include this in the Kickstarter for the very reason that it could impact on development and at the time of their Kickstarter it would have been a big risk. Team17 has lots of experience in physical and will share ideas and opportunities with Playtonic — so absolutely we will be looking into it.”

If you never got around to supporting Yooka-Laylee during its Kickstarter campaign, there is still time to get in on the ground floor. Playtonic is still allowing backers to fund the game via PayPal, though only for a limited time, as Playtonic has set a deadline for August 3, at which point it will no longer accept pledges.

Yooka-Laylee will be released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Wii U, and is currently aiming for an October 2016 release.

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