Once they get going, Internet rumors are hard to stop. One of the latest rumors straight out of the depths of the rumor mill is the speculating that Playtonic Games — the developer behind the Yooka-Laylee series — is not only working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game, but is about to be, or has been recently, acquired by Microsoft. The rumor took off based of speculation involving the team’s developers. At the time, many suspected there wasn’t anything to this speculation, and this morning Playtonic confirmed this. Taking to Twitter, the developer officially shut down both sets of rumors. That said, the independent studio did note that it would relish the opportunity to work on the classic Rare series.
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“Hey everyone, we wanted to address this speculation currently swarming our mentions,” wrote the developer via its official Twitter page. “We hate to be the bearer of news that isn’t what you want to hear, but we thought it best to come out and say — we aren’t working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game and we remain an indepedent studio.”
The developer continued:
“While we would love to work with the bear and bird again, that ball isn’t in our court. With that said, we are keen to continue progressing as a studio, carrying the experience of games we worked on, old and new, to create new characters and adventures for you to hopefully love.”
The developer further added that at first it found the rumors a bit amusing, but it felt eventually it needed to set the record straight, even if it meant bringing fans some disappointing news.
A statement from us! pic.twitter.com/nZHqI5GaYe
— Playtonic (@PlaytonicGames) November 6, 2019
Of course, just because Playtonic is working on something Banjo-Kazooie related, doesn’t mean there isn’t something cooking up elsewhere. That said, if Microsoft were to bring the series back, you’d assume it would be via Playtonic, one of the few studios in existence that has experience shipping a 3D platformer.
Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. Would you like to see Microsoft bring back Banjo-Kazooie?
