What Rare Is Up To These Days (& Is Banjo-Kazooie Involved?)

Between a brand new Amiibo and a recent appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Banjo-Kazooie is on a lot of people’s minds right now. Rare‘s bear and bird duo have been in and out of the spotlight since the days of the Nintendo 64, helming a failed revival attempt on Xbox 360 and heavily influencing a revival of 3D platformers. The team at Rare has also had a roller coaster ride since then, doing everything from work on Xbox Avatar to helming huge online social games like Sea of Thieves. In an age where ’90s nostalgia is all the rage, many are wondering if Rare will ever bring back its famous mascot duo in a new game.

First announced during Microsoft’s E3 showcase back in 2015, Sea of Thieves is the game that current-day Rare has been focused on. This shared-world multiplayer pirate game got off to a rough start when it initially released, but it is now considered one of Xbox’s biggest success stories of the Xbox One generation. The game has expanded wildly since its Steam release in June 2020, with Rare providing a continuous drip of new events and challenges for its loyal band of sea dogs to complete in-game.

Rare also revealed its next project back in 2019, and this upcoming title is much more in the vein of Sea of Thieves than it is a throwback to the N64. Dubbed Everwild, this fantasy adventure game is said to offer experiences that players of all types can share. It’s the same kind of vague language used to describe Sea of Thieves in its earliest state, so it’s easy to assume that Everwild will be another game with a vast open-world meant to be filled in by player experience rather than set-in-stone missions. Other than brief teaser trailers, very little has been revealed about the game and there’s no firm release date as of yet.

Will Rare Ever Make Another Banjo-Kazooie Game?

With production ongoing for both Sea of Thieves and Everwild, the Rare of today seems like it would not be the right choice to create a new entry in the Banjo-Kazooie series. A lot of the developers that created those original games have departed Rare to form Playtonic, and even created spiritual successor Yooka-Laylee in 2017. Even if Rare were to have some of its developers create a new Banjo, the game could end up as something fans reject.

Microsoft and Rare have been quick to hand out the British studio’s IPs to other teams in the past, so perhaps a new Banjo-Kazooie could be made in the vein of Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct, and Battletoads. There are plenty of indie teams out there who have picked up where Rare left off in the ’90s, producing exciting new games like A Hat in Time, Snake Pass, and Super Lucky’s Tale. It does seem inevitable that Microsoft will try again with the popular bear and bird at some point, but for now it seems unlikely that Rare itself will be the main creative force at the wheel.

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