The oft-delayed Switch port of Yooka-Laylee will launch in the US and Europe on December 14th. Digital pre-loading begins via the eShop on December 7th, while there are currently no plans for a physical version.
The Switch port of Yooka-Laylee was announced last year only to be delayed till the near-end of the following one. Developer Playtonic explains the delay came down to optimization for the Switch’s hardware, aided by Unity, Nintendo, and port studio Team 17. Director Gavin Price explained to Eurogamer, “it’s a new platform where we’re using a middleware engine, so it adds another link to the chain – especially when we’re the first game of this scale on this engine on this platform.”
Mr. Price confirmed that Yooka-Laylee on Switch will run at 900p docked and 600p in portable mode, while the UI itself is locked at 1080p. The Switch version will allow single Joy-Cons for the eight mini-games along with built-in Achievements. Playtonic promises the smoothest, most polished edition of the 3D platformer out of any version.
When Yooka-Laylee was originally announced in 2015, the premier build was to be on Wii U. That version would end up being cancelled. The game ultimately launched in April 2017 across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC instead, due to “unforseen technical issues” with the Wii U.
