There was quite a bit of bad news to go around yesterday in the gaming world: not only did Guerrilla Games confirm that Horizon Zero Dawn was getting delayed to Feburary 2017, but Playtonic Games confirmed the same with the highly-anticipated Yooka-Laylee.
However, just like how there was some good news mixed in with the bad concerning the Horizon Zero Dawn delay, there is also some good news concerning Yooka-Laylee. Similar to HZD, Playtonic Games says the delay is for the best and that the few extra months will be used to give Yooka-Laylee some extra polish.
Now, the interesting news about Yooka-Laylee is about the way it will be developed. In the news surrounding the game, it became apparent that UK publisher Team17 is involved in the development process. Specifically, whereas Team17 will be working on porting the title to the PS4 and Xbox, Playtonic will be focusing its efforts on the PC, and more importantly, the Wii U.
This might seem odd at first, but it actually does make a lot of sense. For starters, the game is easier to develop and port externally for the PS4 and Xbox One, thanks to the Unity game engine, but more than just ease of use, the move is indicative of Playtonic's intent to bring a solid Wii U version of the title to the people who have shown it so much support.
In an interview, Writer Andy Robinson and Technical Art Director Mark Stevenson said as much, while also giving a few reasons for the split-development decision of their own.
Robinson: "We naturally have so many backers who opted for Wii U. Because of the size of the team, we couldn't take on all the consoles. You can imagine from a developer stand-point, that porting from PC to PS4 and Xbox One is slightly more straightforward than porting to Wii U."
Stevenson: "We wanted to make sure that Wii U gets the right attention. There is a lot of nostalgia around Banjo, Banjo heralds from Rare's Nintendo's days, and we are all massive Nintendo fans as well."
Based on their testimony, the decision to focus a good deal of effort on the Wii U is a smart one. By now, it's no secret that the developers behind the game used to work for Rare back in the N64 era, and are responsible for some of the greatest platforming games of that time (if not in history), such as Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel, Banjo-Tooie.
With that in mind, their decision wasn't made to only please supporters, but was also likely done to ensure that the Banjo series gets the spiritual successor it deserves.
As a reminder, Yooka-Laylee will now be arriving in early 2017. In the meantime, check out the E3 2016 trailer below.
