{"id":758198,"date":"2026-09-02T23:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/758198\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T23:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:34:08","slug":"iconic-banjo-kazooie-composer-is-more-hopeful-about-a-sequel-these-days-but-knows-like-three-companies-have-already-been-turned-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/758198\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Banjo-Kazooie composer is more hopeful about a sequel these days, but knows &#8220;like three companies&#8221; have already been turned down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Grant Kirkhope &#8211; the iconic video game composer behind the Donkey Kong Rap and the Banjo-Kazooie games &#8211; thinks a potential Banjo-Threeie is slightly more likely now.<\/p>\n<p>Almost three decades have passed since Banjo-Kazooie&#8217;s last mainline platformer flapped onto the N64 and it&#8217;s been almost 20 years since Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts flopped onto the Xbox 360, but it&#8217;s never too late for another adventure with the bird and bear.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/frvr.com\/blog\/news\/sign-me-up-banjo-kazooie-composer-is-holding-out-hope-for-a-sequel-but-knows-multiple-pitches-have-been-turned-down\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FRVR<\/a>, Kirkhope explained that he used to feel there was &#8220;zero chance of another Banjo-Kazooie game.&#8221; Nowadays, that sentiment&#8217;s been upgraded to a &#8220;slight chance&#8221; because he thinks Rare&#8217;s updated leadership could be more receptive to an outside developer spearheading a threequel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Rare just typically say no to everything,&#8221; the composer explained. &#8220;I&#8217;ve known people present cartoons to them, all sorts of ideas, and they just say no to everything.&#8221; But since former studio head Craig Duncan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/xbox-game-studios-craig-duncan-leaves-company\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stepped down from his role at Xbox Game Studios<\/a>, Kirkhope reckons Rare might be &#8220;a little bit different right now&#8221; and &#8220;a bit more open to discussion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Having said that, pitches from outside developers supposedly haven&#8217;t gone over too well. &#8220;I do know of like three companies that have actually physically pitched to Microsoft or to Rare about making another Banjo-Kazooie game, and I don&#8217;t think anyone was successful,&#8221; Kirkhope said.<\/p>\n<p>Rare are too busy to make a new Banjo platformer in-house, according to Kirkhope, and modern day Xbox might be &#8220;more open to discussion&#8221; now that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/zenimax-bethesda-new-plans-include-more-fallout-elder-scrolls-quake\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the company seems laser focused on proven franchises<\/a>. &#8220;Who thought that was a good idea? So, perhaps there&#8217;s a hope.&#8221; Should a Banjo-Threeie do the impossible and actually become a reality, Kirkhope does seem excited to join the project. &#8220;Sign me up,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>We know of at least one developer who sounded very interested in bringing back the classic series: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/spyro-a-realm-beyond-reveal-xbox-showcase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spyro A Realm Beyond<\/a> developer Toys for Bob. Over a year ago, in a chat with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B7WAA0Ana-M\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian Guy Eh<\/a>, co-studio head Paul Yan hinted the team could &#8220;have a lot of fun&#8221; reviving Banjo, as they did with both Crash Bandicoot and the loveable purple dragon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grant Kirkhope &#8211; the iconic video game composer behind the Donkey Kong Rap and the Banjo-Kazooie games &#8211;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-758198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}