Two Tribes Games “rebooting” after running out of money

All this series rebooting has gone too damn far

Announced via Twitter today, and in retrospect vaguely hinted at for the last several weeks, Toki Tori 2+ developer Two Tribes Games has had to let go of most of their staff and restructure after Toki Tori 2+ failed to bring in enough money to continue paying everyone, somehow, despite coming to the wildly popular Wii U console. Numerous delays in finally bringing that game to market, as well as the game somehow not getting a ton of coverage despite effusive praise from those that have played it, were cited as factors.

I’m sorry! I would have reviewed it! I don’t have a Wii U yet!

The staff have been cut down from 10 full time and five interns to a core team of three, plus two interns. Publishing of the company’s games remains unaffected thanks to the way the company was structured, so all those Wii U ports of their other games that just came out aren’t going anywhere. In addition, development continues on the company’s next project, a side-scrolling action game tentatively titled “Re:wind” and based on the Toki Tori 2 engine. More information in their native tongue of Dutch is here. Isn’t that weird?

The first Toki Tori was and remains a wonderful puzzle game. Originally for Game Boy Color, I played the WiiWare remake, which eventually came to other devices along with the Game Boy Color version seeing a 3DS Virtual Console re-release. It’s similar to Adventures of Lolo meets Lemmings, which depending on who you are probably sounds like the most wonderful thing ever. I haven’t played their other puzzle games, Rush and Edge, but Rush has been described as “3D Chu Chu Rocket” so I don’t know what the hell I’ve been waiting for.

Sorry, Two Tribes.