Unity issues slowing down Switch ports

Independent game creators have admitted that issues with the Unity game engine is impacting the release of Nintendo Switch titles.

Developer Playtonic has issued an update on its anticipated release of Yooka-Laylee for Switch. The developer had initially intended to release the Kickstarter-backed game on Wii U, but it was forced to cancel that version and port it to Switch (again, GamesIndustry.biz understands this was due to challenges with the engine).

The Switch edition was (and still is) due to arrive this year, but it has become dependent on help from the engine provider. It's not the only game to suffer a similar fate, Battle Chasers: Nightwar - another Kickstarter title - also received a delay on Switch due to struggles with Unity.

Playtonic told its backers yesterday: "The Playtonic team has been working tirelessly to bring Yooka-Laylee to Nintendo Switch and we're very nearly there (we promise)!

"However, we've encountered some final technical hurdles and had been waiting for the arrival of Unity 5.6 in order to fix them. Although this has now been released, it has unfortunately introduced other issues which we are working with Unity to resolve before we can submit to Nintendo and lock in our release timeline.

"We understand the frustration that it's taken so long to get the game in your hands but we hope that you understand that we're working as fast as we can and want the game to perform as well as it possibly can on Switch. Once these remaining issues are resolved we hope to finally be able to commit to and share a launch date. Thanks as ever for your patience and please bear with us - we are getting there!"

The company showed a brief video of the game running on Switch alongside the statement.