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Banjo-Kazooie

GRTV News - Could a new Banjo-Kazooie rival 3D Mario?

Moon Studios boss definitely believes so.

Audio transcription

"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of GRTV news. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about Banjo-Kazooie of all things. No, there hasn't been an announcement, there hasn't been any bit of information coming out suggesting that we're going to be getting a new Banjo-Kazooie game any time soon, unfortunately. But, the boss of Moon Studios, who has been known for most recently, well this developer has been most recently known for giving us No Rest for the Wicked as an early access project, but before that they were the ones that created the Ori games. And, you know, so they have quite a lot of pedigree when it comes to platformers these days. And they've gone out, or the boss of Moon Studios has gone out and said that a great Banjo-Kazooie title could not only rival 3D Mario but probably sell similar numbers. So, let's take a look at what exactly he said and then after that we'll share our thoughts. So, Moon Studios' boss, a great Banjo-Kazooie title could rival 3D Mario and probably sell similar numbers, but notes that Microsoft doesn't give all that much attention to family-friendly titles. So, every time Microsoft has some kind of event the same pattern has been repeated for two decades, namely people keeping their fingers crossed for the return of Banjo-Kazooie in a new platform adventure. Several times Xbox representatives have said they would like to do something with the characters, but so far nothing has materialised. One person who is siding with the fans and considers this a strange behaviour from Microsoft is Ori and the Will of the Wisps creator and Moon Studios' boss, Thomas Marler. He says that Microsoft doesn't have any family games and writes on social media, Xbox doesn't really have any family-friendly titles right now, at least nothing of quality they're known for. That's what I hope Microsoft would see in Ori, but Xbox is clearly about Halo, Gears and Forza and nothing else really got all that much attention. So, what should they do about it according to Marler? The answer is Banjo-Kazooie, which he says would be a smash hit in the right hands. They've been sitting on Banjo-Kazooie with nothing happening there even though a really talented developer could probably make a Banjo game that could rival 3D Mario and probably sell similar numbers."

"So, we don't think Marler is entirely right about Xbox Game Studios not having any family games given that they now own both Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, but we do miss the bear and the bird. What do you think? Could a really good Banjo-Kazooie have challenged Mario in terms of sales?
So, I do agree that Banjo-Kazooie has been massively underutilised over the years. I don't think anyone really disagrees with that statement. Could it potentially rival 3D Mario?
It depends. If it's a really good game, critically it could. There's no reason to say it couldn't."

"We saw Astro Bot come out last year and it was one of the best games of 2024, one of the best platformers we've seen in years. So, there's no reason why Banjo-Kazooie couldn't come out and also be a really, really capable and quality title. Could it rival it in terms of sales? Well, that's a different story. It depends. 3D Mario games are some of the biggest sellers when it comes to Nintendo's platformer, shall we say. So, to say that it could rival it in terms of sales is a big ask considering... Well, the only thing that would go in Banjo-Kazooie's favour is the fact that Xbox has been trending towards a multi-platform approach these days, which means Banjo-Kazooie would almost definitely end up as a PC and an Xbox title and would probably also be looking to debut on Switch as well these days because it seems like a perfect game for Switch. Would it be on PlayStation?
Different story, maybe. Who knows? But the point is that the one thing that Banjo-Kazooie would have going for it is that it would have a much more wider multi-platform release than a Super Mario game which would come out on Nintendo platforms and Nintendo platforms only. The one thing I will say in the piece there is that it's mentioned that Xbox Game Studios not having any family games is kind of wrong because they have both Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. I kind of think that's a bit... I don't think that's quite right to say because of the fact that Xbox Game Studios only owns Crash Bandicoot and Spyro because they bought Activision Blizzard. They bought Activision Blizzard a few years ago and we've seen no signs of a new Crash Bandicoot coming out or a new Spyro the Dragon coming out. There's been teases that suggest that we could get one or the other. Maybe, you know, something on its way at some point. But the point is that, you know, it's not like they bought Activision Blizzard and all of a sudden Crash Bandicoot and Spyro are now like postage characters for Xbox. That's not exactly happened. I would go as far... I would kind of agree with Marla and say that Xbox is not a particularly family-friendly platform right now when you look at it sort of first party projects. It has a lot of titles that you can access on Game Pass and whatnot that are family-friendly but a lot of them are not sort of Xbox Game Studios developed titles. But again, who knows? Maybe this will change. We do have the Developer Direct coming up on Thursday. We're going to see Doom The Dark Ages, which isn't family-friendly."

"South of Midnight, which isn't really family-friendly either. And then Claire Obscure Expedition 33, I think the name of the game is. It's kind of a strange name. Which again, also isn't a particularly family-friendly game. But there is a fourth speculated and rumoured...
fourth title that we're going to be seeing that they haven't said what it is. You can go on the internet and find all kinds of rumours and speculation but no one really knows what it is right now. One thing's for certain though is I don't think you're going to be seeing a Banjo-Kazooie so just temp your expectations a little bit with that one. We haven't seen a Banjo-Kazooie in a long time. I wouldn't expect to see a new one in this Developer Direct. I could be completely wrong but I would be trending significantly closer to it not happening. Who knows though. The Developer Direct is happening on Thursday so stay tuned for that and otherwise that's all the time I have for today's episode of GRTV News. But I will be back tomorrow for the next one so stay tuned for that and otherwise. Hope you enjoy the rest of your Tuesday. I'll see you on the next one. Take care everyone."

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