According to insider NateDrake from the ResetEra forums, Microsoft has given the green light to develop a new platformer in the Banjo-Kazooie lineup for the Xbox Series X|S.
Which studio was assigned to release the project is unknown.
Initially, NateDrake thought that the reboot of the Banjo Bear and Kazooie Bird series would be presented at the June production of Microsoft and Bethesda, held on June 12, but there the Xbox team chose to focus only on those games that should be released in the coming year. Unfortunately, Banjo-Kazooie is not one of them.
“There is a new project for Banjo-Kazooie in development. Right now, we can only guess where and when it will be shown. But as far as I understand, Microsoft gave the green light to production only a few months ago. There was talk about the game at GDC,” he wrote.
The first Banjo-Kazooie was created by Rare and debuted on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, and the second, titled Banjo-Tooie, followed in 2000.
It was a great success on the world market. The games received high marks and competed for audience attention with other leading 3D platform games of the time, such as Crash Bandicoot, Donkey Kong 64, and Super Mario 64.
In 2008, Microsoft attempted to relaunch the series on the Xbox 360, but the genre change didn’t make Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts a big success.
In 2019, Banjo and Kazooie became playable characters in the fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate by Nintendo, which Phil Spencer called “his dream come true.” The return of the heroes caused a lot of hype and increased requests for a new game.
As NateDrake explained, Banjo-Kazooie fits in perfectly with Microsoft’s strategy to diversify its gaming lineup, which Xbox Game Studios are adopting.
In a previous post, Fans of the Super Smash Bros. series for many years dreamed of seeing Banjo and Kazooie from the Banjo-Kazooie franchise of the same name, created by the Rare studio, as playable characters in the games of the series.
