Xbox VP and chief content officer Matt Booty has responded to ongoing fan requests for a new Banjo-Kazooie game to come about from the company. Despite being arguably one of the most iconic franchises that Xbox owns, Banjo-Kazooie has been left untouched for the better part of the last 20 years, as the last entry in the series was 2008’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. And while a new Banjo title doesn’t seem anywhere close to releasing, Booty isn’t shooting down the notion that Xbox could do something new with the IP down the road.
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Speaking to GamesRadar, Booty was asked directly about Banjo-Kazooie and some of Xbox’s other legacy franchises that it’s done very little with in recent history. Booty acknowledged that there are “options” for Xbox to do things with these properties, whether it be with its own first-party studios or with outside companies. As such, it’s always examining whether or not it should do something with these IPs, leaving the door open for new projects to be greenlit in the future.
“We’re in the great position that we have our first-party studios, we have first-party publishing, who [get] to work with great partners, like Kojima [Productions], and we also have all of our great third-party partners from around the industry,” Booty said. “We’ve got ID@Xbox, which brings in so many great partners that are kind of on a different part of their game development journey. It’s all of it. So, I think the answer is there are options to do all kinds of things, and we’re certainly looking at those all the time.”
Perhaps expectedly, this statement from Booty is quite noncommittal. While it’s comforting to hear that Xbox doesn’t consider Banjo-Kazooie something that it will never return to, Booty’s lack of addressing the franchise by name or its hardcore fanbase doesn’t inspire much confidence. Because of this, it’s hard to believe that anything tied to the beloved bird and bear is being quietly developed behind the scenes.
Still, if the Xbox Games Showcase did tell us anything, it’s that Xbox is very much open to reviving some of its older franchises. This was perhaps most notably seen with Spyro: A Realm Beyond, which will be the first wholly new entry in the platformer series to come about since 2008’s The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. As such, if Spyro can make a comeback after 20 years away, maybe Banjo and Kazooie can do the same as well.
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