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Playtonic Confirms New Banjo-Kazooie Isn’t in the Studio’s Plans

Banjo-Kazooie, Playtonic

Sorry folks, Playtonic Games isn’t developing a new Banjo-Kazooie game. A statement released by the studio earlier today confirmed, that despite rumors to the contrary, the team isn’t in negotiations with Microsoft to work on a sequel title.

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Speculation on the matter first gathered momentum last week when former Rare developer Ed Bryan joined Playtonic. He then unintentionally stirred the pot by tweeting an image of a Microsoft badge along with the caption “Well, I never really had any plans to use this again.”

One Reddit user then went about gathering a bunch of circumstantial evidence that they believed pointed to an impending announcement, which included a quote from Gavin Price’s Linked-in page, Playtonic Games’ co-owner, which alluded to an unannounced project.

These, it was suggested, possibly indicated a Microsoft studio acquisition and the green light of a subsequent Banjo-Kazooie project developed by Playtonic. Microsoft, of course, owns Rare and the Banjo IP but has that team currently pre-occupied with Sea of Thieves.

As it turns out, though, none of this is happening or was ever close to happening.

Playtonic issued the following statement just this morning:

So it’s a disappointment for anybody hoping for the return of Banjo-Kazooie, but possibly not forever — the popularity of retro platformers like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon in recent months means we wouldn’t bank on Rare being tasked with a Banjo game at some point.

About the author

Alex Gibson

Alex was a Senior Editor at Twinfinite and worked on the site between January 2017 and March 2023. He covered the ins and outs of Valorant extensively, and frequently provided expert insight into the esports scene and wider video games industry. He was a self-proclaimed history & meteorological expert, and knew about games too. Playing Games Since: 1991, Favorite Genres: RPG, Action

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