Good news for fans of the Yooka-Laylee series on PlayStation consoles: developer Playtonic has confirmed that they are not being bought by Microsoft. They are also not working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game. Considering how much of a buying spree Microsoft has been on lately, picking up studios such as Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, and Double Fine, this may come as a bit of a relief to some. Playtonic took to Twitter to announce that they are indeed still independent.
Hey everyone!
We wanted to address the speculation currently swarming our mentions. We hate to be the bearers of news that isn’t what you want to hear, but we thought it best to come out and say – we aren’t working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game and we remain an independent studio.
While we would love to work with the bear and bird again, that ball isn’t in our court. With that said, we are keen to continue progressing as a studio, carrying the experience of games we worked on, old and new, to create new characters and adventures for you to (hopefully) love.
We’re sorry if this isn’t what you wanted to hear from us. At first, we found it amusing that Ed Bryan’s bag is being used as serious “evidence”, but we reckon it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t set the record straight.
Playtonic Games X
So how did these rumors get started? Well, like Playtonic said in their statement, on November 3rd, 2019, Ed Bryan, a character artist who used to work for Rare, posted a picture of a bag. Specifically, a picture of a bag that says “Microsoft” on it, albeit with the name half cut off. The bag was supposed to be a tease that Ed was hired by Playtonic, something that was announced the next day. However, several people begin to take this as a serious sign that Playtonic was being purchased, to the point where the developer finally felt the need to step in to clarify.
In the meantime, you can go back to enjoying Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair and feel okay knowing future Playtonic games may still be brought to your living room.
[Source: Twitter]
