Xbox VP for marketing Aaron Greenberg was victimized from some fake news over the weekend. Thankfully, he has set the record straight about the situation.
As reported by GoNintendo, the issue started in a public Xbox event that Greenberg attended. YouTuber Puerta al Sotano asked Greenberg about Rare’s seminal platformer title Banjo-Kazooie.
Greenberg apparently told the Puerta al Sotano that “nobody cares about Banjo Kazooie.” The issue seems to be that Puerta al Sotano thought that Greenberg was being serious. Later, he started having doubts that Greenberg was joking.
Another content creator, JayWood2010, tagged Greenberg on Twitter, asking him directly if he was simply joking at the time. This was Greenberg’s reply:
“Correct, I absolutely know how much Banjo-Kazooie means to our fans and gamers everywhere. It holds a special place in my heart, growing up playing these classic games.”
Indeed, Banjo-Kazooie first released on the Nintendo 64 all the way back in 1998. It’s no surprise that many Banjo-Kazooie players and fans are now themselves part of the video game industry, 26 years later.
While it’s now clear that this rumor was misinformation, it’s also easy to understand why it gained so much traction to begin with. Banjo-Kazooie fans have long lamented that Microsoft did not make many Banjo games after they acquired Rare, the studio who made the games and owned the property.
While Microsoft has towed the line about how they value Rare and Banjo-Kazooie, there were rumors about troubles in making the Banjo-Kazooie remakes, as well as Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. Most fans know these stories and take them as gospel, but it must be said that we never received confirmation about this from any former or current higher ups at Microsoft or Rare.
Klobrille shared their own insider knowledge about the situation surrounding the Banjo-Kazooie franchise on Twitter:
“Basically every longer Xbox discussion I had with someone from Xbox these last several years at some point was about Banjo-Kazooie and other legacy IPs. They know.
It’s fair to keep asking. But in the end this is solely about finding the right team at the right time.”
While Banjo-Kazooie fans will still want to argue about how other companies like Nintendo are still able to make their own platformers, Nintendo actually faces similar problems as well. There is a nineteen year gap between F-Zero Climax on the Game Boy Advance and F-Zero 99 on the Nintendo Switch.
Similarly, projects like Metroid Dread and the idea of Miis waited years before Nintendo could realize them. While fans often only see the binary between having new games of their favorite franchises, its different for the game companies.
Game companies have to worry if their games will succeed. The lesson Microsoft learned with Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts is that it’s not enough to make a new Banjo-Kazooie game, or that it’s a good game, or that it’s ahead of its time. To make everything worthwhile, Microsoft has to come up with a good new game idea, and find a studio who can make that game. The best we can hope is that the stars align for a proper Banjo-Kazooie idea to finally arrive and successfully finish development to be a real game someday.
