The studio behind platformer series Yooka-Laylee Playtonic has opened its own publishing label. The brilliantly-named Playtonic Friends will apparently help studios release “fresh, creative and compelling” titles. It is already working with three studios: Awe Interactive of BPM: Bullets Per Minute fame, New York-based Fabraz and OK Golf developer Okidokico. “The knowledge that we were coming up to our sixth birthday triggered lots of typical Teams calls amongst the staff here at Playtonic,” Playtonic boss Gavin Price said. “Should we all don party hats and video chat together? Should we have a few mocktails, whip out the Karaoke and belt out our best Beyoncé? Or should we launch a new publishing label designed to bring the best games from indie studios the world over to market? Given I had a bit of scratchy throat that evening - and that the establishment of Playtonic Friends had been brewing as a serious ambition for a while - we went with that.” The company’s business development manager Steph Darrah added: “While everyone at Playtonic has dreams of recreating Scrooge McDuck splashing around in his pool of cold, hard cash, in reality our motivation for setting up Playtonic Friends was to take what we’ve learned about producing & releasing video games and use it to aid developers of a like mind looking for a fruitful route to market. That said, a yacht moored on the shores of Monte Carlo would be nice.”
