New Banjo-Kazooie Game Reportedly in the Works

A new Banjo-Kazooie game may finally be happening. In the 90s and early 2000s, we had countless platformers and video game mascots like Crash Bandicoot, Sonic, Mario, and Banjo-Kazooie. While some franchises fell to the wayside, a lot of these have come back around in recent years or never even left. Crash Bandicoot has had a bit of a resurgence in recent years getting new single player platformers and even a PvP multiplayer game. However, characters like Banjo and Kazooie feel like they have been forgotten about. Microsoft acquired Rare back in 2002 and eventually produced Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts for Xbox 360, but after that, those gaming icons never got another game. They have popped up in other games over the years such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and ex-Rare developers went on to make Yooka-Laylee which was done as a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie.

For years, fans have hoped to see a new Banjo-Kazooie under Xbox, but it has yet to happen. Rare was relegated to making Kinect games for a number of years before being allowed to make something much bigger with Sea of Thieves which has been a pretty big success. While Rare has some other upcoming projects, someone somewhere is also reportedly making a new Banjo-Kazooie game. According to NateDrake on ResetEra, a new Banjo-Kazooie game is in development, but it didn’t get the green light until early 2022 so it may be a ways away still. 

“It’s still an active project, but it didn’t get the green light until early last year. There is a lot to do and development can change a lot (abandoned ideas, internal reboots, etc.)”

Of course, this is just someone on the internet, so it could be made up. Take it with a grain of salt, as always. The project could also get canceled somewhere along the way. However, this has spawned a lot of interest in a new Banjo-Kazooie game. Whether it ever sees the light of day remains to be seen, but hopefully we can all will it to happen.