Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic Video games has laid off an undisclosed variety of workers, confirming reviews of cuts shared by former workers on social media over the previous week.
“We have all seen in recent times how the video games trade has been altering, leading to studio after studio discovering themselves in conditions the place to live on, they have to make painful selections—selections that influence the lives of so many particular person gifted builders,” Playtonic stated in as we speak’s assertion. “Like others, we have felt the knock-on results and after exploring each potential avenue, we have needed to make the extremely heartbreaking choice to say goodbye to some really good members of the Playtonic workforce.
“This is not merely a tough second, it is a interval of profound change in how video games are created and financed. The panorama is shifting, and with it, so should we.”
Playtonic did not say how many individuals have been put out of labor. Nevertheless, model supervisor Anni Valkama listed 14 workers impacted by the cuts, throughout manufacturing, artwork, and design groups, in a message posted to LinkedIn.
Playtonic was based in 2014 by former Uncommon workers, and launched Yooka-Laylee, a religious successor to Banjo Kazooie, in 2017. Yooka-Laylee and the Unimaginable Lair adopted in 2019, and that is just about been it: A publishing division, Playtonic Pals, launched in early 2021, and Tencent invested in Playtonic late that very same yr. A brand new Yooka-Laylee sport, Yooka-Replaylee, is at the moment slated for launch this yr, whereas the brand new sport beneath the Playtonic Pals label, Cattle Nation—developed by Fortress Pixel—arrived earlier this week.
The layoffs at Playtonic proceed a disaster within the sport improvement trade that started with 2023 and continues unabated: Earlier this week, Digital Arts cancelled the Black Panther sport that is been in improvement since 2023 and closed Cliffhanger Video games, the studio making it; lower than a month previous to that it laid off a reported 300-400 workers whereas cancelling two “incubation tasks” at Respawn. 2025 has additionally seen layoffs at Ubisoft, Cyan Worlds, Mighty Yell, Eidos Montreal, engine maker Unity, and others.
