Postby Taylor » Thu Mar 30, 2017 5:59 pm
Last time I posted here, I spoke about a critical success, but in terms of finance and the future of the company...
I don't want it to happen, but if Yooka-Laylee does not sell well, there are a few different scenarios that could play out. It's difficult to call what will happen without knowing all the variables. We don't know how much money Playtonic have aside already; did they use up the entire Kickstarter budget, and are they still prepared to fund a new game through their own personal savings?
I think, even if Yooka-Laylee 'flops' at retail, Playtonic will still go on to make another game. The game was funded through crowd-sourcing, so they will make a profit -- we just cannot predict how much of a profit. In an ideal world, they would want to accrue at least £2 million in total to match the Kickstarter and be able to independently fund a game with a similar level of polish to Yooka-Laylee. I think that means selling about 60,000 copies, but you need to remember many fans have already backed on the Kickstarter, so will not be buying a copy.
I think Playtonic will need to strive to match, or improve on, Yooka-Laylee's polish. If they have less funds next time and create a game to reflect that, people may review it negatively for being "worse" than their first game. So, if they do not make a large enough profit, it means they may have to start another Kickstarter campaign to fill the difference. In theory, this should not be too hard to achieve, as they will already have made at least some of the funds up from selling Yooka-Laylee.
An alternative source of funding could come from a publisher, but Playtonic are very keen on keeping all creative control over their projects, which I fully support.
In summary, I think it is very likely Playtonic will make another game, but the quality of the next game will depend on how much money they have to put into it. After that, who knows...
Taylonic Ltd.