Grant Kirkhope, the composer of the Banjo-Kazooie franchise, discussed in a recent interview with VGC about the chances that Banjo-Kazooie could get a sequel sooner or later. He was honest in saying that he doesn’t know whether the lukewarm reaction to the announcement of a partnership with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate impacts the future or not on that. However, he suggested a way to make it happen.
“My honest opinion is I don’t know if they’ll ever be a new Banjo,” Kirkhope said. “It’s easy to go, ‘look at these numbers’, but it might be a drop in the ocean for Xbox. Is there a market for it? I just don’t know. I would think that Rare probably doesn’t have the appetite for it. They’re super busy with Sea of Thieves.”
There’s a way to make it happen, though, according to the composer that involves Rare partnering with an external studio who care about the intellectual property. It’s similar to what happened with Killer Instinct and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
“Rare need to find somebody like that who gets the game, who really loves it, gets the humour, comes up with a great plot and then kicks on,” Kirkhope said. “They would need to find an external studio who really cares about the project and wants to do it.”
About the things he knows or doesn’t know, he added that he is just a composer, so he’s the last one to be informed about a game in the making. But he also has the idea that “maybe the E3 reception has made Microsoft think about it.”
Will someone ever take the responsibility to work on a new Banjo-Kazooie game? With studios like Playtonicare out there with former Rare staff, and Dlala Studios are now working on the latest Battletoads, we do believe there’s a chance.
