Playtonic Games opens second office – Yooka-Laylee sequel and more in the works

Following its minority stake investment from Chinese giant Tencent, U.K. development studio Playtonic Games has expanded into a second office in Leamington Spa. Looking to “stretch [its] reach across the midlands,” Playtonic appears to be expanding in anticipation of working on multiple new projects including a sequel to the Banjo-Kazooie-esque 3D platformer Yooka-Laylee.

Talking to GI.biz, Playtonic’s head of software Simon Gerges explained that the company wanted to “broaden [its] reach, without going too far.” Gerges adds that Playtonic has “a number of senior roles” it’s hiring for. Interestingly, the small, second office in Leamington Spa was previously home to Fall Guys’ developer Mediatonic for a short time. Currently, it’ll be staffed by ten people, those Gerges notes that they’re looking to expand.

Head of Playtonic Games, Gavin Price, adds that Playtonic is open to expanding further, but will remain steadfast in its hybrid working environment in which employees can work from home if needed or use the office if a physical presence is required. Price explains that the studio needs to go to where the strong leadership is and that “people have all the power.” He adds that Playtonic needs to pitch itself to whoever these people may be in order to further expand, potentially outside of the midlands, even.

With a full sequel to Yooka-Laylee in the works at Playtonic Games along with other projects, Playtonic appears to be expanding at the right time for them. Hopefully, we see our first glimpse of Yooka-Laylee 2 soon.