Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent has bought a minority stake in Playtonic, the Derby-based developer behind Yooka-Laylee.

Playtonic has not disclosed how much of the company it had sold, but confirmed it still retained ownership of its IP.

The money will be spent on scaling up the business from its current single-team structure to multiple teams, hiring diverse talent, improving its office and exploring an expansion to other locations, Playtonic said.

Read more

If you're looking for a couple more video game freebies to shove unceremoniously into your almost certainly already overstuffed 'to do' pile, Epic has you covered, with Yooka-Laylee and Void Bastards currently free on its PC store.

Yooka-Laylee, if you're unfamiliar, is a spiritual successor to Rare's beloved platformer Banjo-Kazooie - and was developed by Playtonic, a studio founded by a number of ex-Rare veterans. Lizard and bat replace bear and bird in Yooka-Laylee, but the formula will be immediately familiar to Banjo-Kazooie fans, setting players loose across a number of sprawling, predominantly platforming-focussed worlds as they embark on an perky, old-school collectathon in search of missing Quills.

All in all, it's a decently entertaining adventure (although its superb side-scrolling sequel, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, is far superior), and one that Eurogamer contributor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell called a "sumptuous, diverting homage to a bygone era in game design that should keep fans of the old school hooked, even if it doesn't set the world on fire."

Read more

Playtonic Games, the studio behind Kickstarter success Yooka-Laylee, has announced a new publishing label. It's called Playtonic Friends, and three studios have already signed up their next projects.

At the same time, and after a quiet 2020, Playtonic is reassuring fans it remains committed to its own game development. Playtonic now has "multiple" games featuring Yooka-Laylee characters in the works and is staffing up further to expand its production capabilities.

We've spoken to Playtonic boss Gavin Price about these new announcements and its upcoming games - you can read all that below. Before then, here's a video featuring Price, composer Grant Kirkhope and character art director Steve Mayles larking about with today's headlines:

Read more

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is the follow-up to Playtonic's platforming debut, and it's looking very lovely indeed.

If you missed its reveal during the busy E3 period, this is the long-awaited sequel to the original Yooka-Laylee - but it comes with a bit of a twist.

Instead of the 3D platforming areas a bit (okay, a lot) like Banjo-Kazooie, this is Playtonic's take on the side-scrolling levels of Donkey Kong Country.

Read more