Yooka-Laylee fans have been anxiously awaiting news from developer Playtonic Games this past week. Playtonic teased that it had a great new project to reveal, which it has now done. That project is Playtonic Friends, a publishing label for indie games. The studio and publisher will be referred to as Playtonic and Playtonic Friends going forward. Three exciting partners have already been announced. For those worried about what this might mean for Playtonic's games, the developer already confirmed it will remain dedicated to game development, too.
As mentioned, Playtonic Friends already has three partners that it will be working with to publish upcoming games. Those partners are Awe Interactive, developer of BPM: Bullets Per Minute, Fabraz, developer of Slime-san, and Okidokico, developer of Ok Golf. Obviously, all of those games are already available. That means that Playtonic is either helping these studios work on their next games, or that they could be bringing BPM, Slime-san, and Ok Golf to new platforms.
For the time being, Playtonic Friends isn't looking to rapidly expand its new publishing venture. Playtonic Friends will remain "choosy," in that it'll only partner with studios that fit with what Playtonic is able to do well. Playtonic also says that it has split off the financials of Playtonic Friends away from the studio. As such, the future expansion and growth of Playtonic Friends very likely depends on the success of these first three publishing partnerships.
Those curious regarding what Playtonic's own game plans are will be excited to hear that some news was shared on that front, too. Playtonic says it isn't ready to announce its next game yet, but that 2021 will be a very big year. Fans of the Yooka-Laylee developer will just have to be patient for more news. Playtonic clearly has some very exciting plans.
