Many gamers have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Playtonic Games' upcoming collectathon platformer, Yooka-Laylee, but none have done so more than Nintendo fans, who comprised the majority of Kickstarter backers in an effort to revive a genre of gaming that once thrived on older Nintendo consoles. Unfortunately, this morning Playtonic had to share some disappointing news with us: the game will no longer be coming to Wii U due to "unforeseen technical issues" with the system.
However, don't lose hope just yet, as despite earlier comments to the contrary, Playtonic is "working very closely with Nintendo" to investigate bringing Yooka-Laylee to the Switch instead. For now they're treating that version as a mere possibility, but their wording elsewhere suggests that it's actually a done deal at this point. Like many other companies, they just haven't officially confirmed a Nintendo Switch version yet.
Either way, Kickstarter backers who had specifically requested a Wii U copy of the game will be given a chance to change their platform of choice to any of the other systems without penalty.
"The Playtonic team is sad to confirm that despite our best efforts and exploring every possible avenue, we've encountered unforeseen technical issues that unfortunately mean it will be impossible for us to release the game on Wii U as initially planned.
"We can however confirm the exciting news that we are now working very closely with Nintendo to look to bring Yooka-Laylee to the upcoming Nintendo Switch. We're looking forward to exploring the opportunity and will have more details to share early next year.
"We'd like to apologise to those affected by this development and offer all Wii U backers the opportunity to move their pledge free-of-charge to any of the versions launching on April 11th (PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac or Linux) or upgrade to the Nintendo Switch version when we announce further details in 2017." — Playtonic Games
Playtonic said back in June that they themselves were specifically focusing on the Wii U version, while Team17 was handling ports to other consoles, but it looks like even the veterans from Rare were unable to get the game working properly on Wii U. And if you were wondering if something else might have influenced this decision, such as the Switch's reveal or the Wii U's poor sales performance, Gavin Price was asked about this point blank by GamesIndustry, and he has completely denied such possibilities.
"No, that had nothing to do with the decision. As we have shared, it's simply down to unforeseen technical difficulties."
[...] "We're working hard to provide Wii U fans with multiple options to let them decide how they'd like to move forwards. The Playtonic team members who backed were mostly Wii U backers too, so we know it's not the news everyone wanted to hear but we'll do our absolute best to make it the right decision and ensure Nintendo fans get the great experience they deserve." — Gavin Price
Are you disappointed that the Wii U version of Yooka-Laylee has been scrapped? Happy to see it's probably coming to the Switch? Outraged or understanding of their reasoning? Some alternate emotion for some alternate reason that you can, at least tangentially, attribute to Playtonic's upcoming collectathon? I feel that no matter if it's on the Wii U or Switch it should still be released on an Nintendo console.
