Yooka-Laylee is hitting Xbox One and PlayStation 4 next year, but it will be the Wii U and PC versions of the game that will be the lead ones. Speaking to MCV UK, Playtonic confirmed that they are internally developing only the Wii U and PC versions of the game, with the Xbox One and PS4 versions farmed out to popular indie game developer Team17.
“We naturally have so many backers who opted for Wii U,” said Andy Robinson, who is a writer on the game. “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.
“I also think it feels right playing it on a Nintendo system to some people. But the other versions will be fantastic as well.”
Technical art director Mark Stevenson added: “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.”
Sounds like one of the rare games that will see a Wii U version exist, and get the due attention. It makes sense, though- if there is one thing Nintendo have done over the last 30 years, it is cultivating an audience for platformers on their systems. I suppose it is only fair that it would pay off now.