Rumour: Multiple Studios Interested In Making New Banjo-Kazooie Game

There’s been a lot of talk about Banjo-Kazooie without anything actually materialising over the past few years, but a new rumour suggests Xbox and Rare are at least “listening” to pitches about a new title.

This comes from Video Games Chronicle’s Andy Robinson, who mentioned on a VGC podcast that he’s heard Toys for Bob (Crash Bandicoot 4, Spyro Reignited Trilogy) and Moon Studios (Ori) could be interested in making a Banjo game.

“The talk for ages was that, you know, there’s always outside interests in Banjo but they’re not interested. I mean, Gregg (Mayles, Banjo-Kazooie creator) is someone who doesn’t look back, notoriously, he said this on the record, that he likes to do new stuff. The attitude from the studio leadership was always, “no no no, we’re gonna do the new thing.”

“I heard more recently the pitches are being listened to. I heard constantly the name that comes up is Toys for Bob who really wanna do one. Funny enough, I heard Moon Studios as well was another one who’s really interested.”

“There’s always talk about interest of a cartoon, of a movie. You know, constant.”

When it comes to Toys for Bob, the studio has actually hinted at interest in making a Banjo-Kazooie game before, mentioning in April that “Banjo’s been hibernating long enough” and the studio could “have a lot of fun” with the project.

Moon Studios, meanwhile, hasn’t publicly declared an interest, but the company’s CEO suggested at the start of this year that Xbox could “rival 3D Mario” with a well-made Banjo-Kazooie game.

Is it going to happen? Who knows at this point. Xbox boss Phil Spencer knows we want it though – he told fans back in December 2023 that he “hears” their requests for a new Banjo game, so let’s hope something happens with it eventually.