Yooka-Replaylee shows even indie devs know about Nintendo Switch 2

Indie studio Playtonic is teasing the fact that they seem to know about the Nintendo Switch 2 and when it will be released.

By Friday next week it’ll be November and there’s still no sign of Nintendo announcing their new console, nicknamed Switch 2 by fans. Many rumours pointed to an unveiling this month but that’s looking increasingly unlikely, and it seems like the more obvious assumption – of an announcement in January or February – might be what’s actually happening.

Although a public unveiling is the first step, the more important question is when the console will be released, which Nintendo has made no promises for at all – even though most people expect it to arrive in the first half of 2025.

That would require games publishers and developers to know all about it by now but given how secretive they are, how many people has Nintendo really told? If the new trailer for the remaster of Yooka-Laylee is anything to go by then even relatively small indie developers have been taken into Nintendo’s confidence.

Yooka-Replaylee is somewhere between a remaster and a remake of the 2017 3D platformer Yooka-Laylee, made by developer Playtonic and several ex-Rare staff who worked on the Banjo-Kazooie series.

It was okay but it didn’t really live up to the reputation of Rare’s best work, so this new version is not just a remaster but changes quite a bit about the original game, including the controls, in order to try and reach its full potential.

That’s all very interesting but what has really caught people’s attention is that at the end of the trailer, where all the usual format logos are, the Nintendo Switch one is not included.

Instead, there’s a generic Nintendo one, the obvious implication being that Yooka-Replaylee will be released on the Switch 2, and probably the original Switch too.

That would be extra interesting if Yooka-Replaylee had a release date, but unfortunately the trailer does not indicate one.

The use of the logo is clearly not a mistake or oversight, as a pair of Rare style googly eyes bounce onto the screen at the end of the trailer and move over to sit pointedly on the Nintendo logo.

It all seems to suggest that Playtonic know about the Switch 2 and are intending to release the game on it but can’t say any more until Nintendo officially announces it.

They could just be guessing, since everyone knows the console is coming out soon-ish, but it doesn’t seem wise for an indie developer to risk upsetting Nintendo with something like this, unless they’d checked with them beforehand.

It’s widely assumed that many new Switch 2 games will be cross-gen, and released on the original Switch as well, with the only real detail – which Nintendo has sort-of, kind-of confirmed – being that the Switch 2 is backwards compatible with its predecessor.

How that’ll work in practice is currently unknown, at least to us. But it does sound like Playtonic might know. And if they do then that implies many other developers around the world do too.