Phil Spencer Shouts Out Banjo-Kazooie While Talking About Bringing Back Older Franchises

It’s been a long 15 years since the last Banjo Kazooie game was released, and since then, fans have been eager for a revival. Now, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has finally acknowledged fans hopes for the franchise’s return.

In an interview with Windows Central published Friday, Spencer briefly shouted out Banjo-Kazooie’s community and its repeated pleas for a new game when asked about types of games that might see revivals.

“You’ve seen from our history that we haven’t touched every franchise that people would love us to touch — Banjo fans, I hear you,” Spencer said. “But it is true that, when we find the right team, and the right opportunity, I love going back to revisit stories and characters that we’ve seen previously.”

Spencer also discussed the process of reviving an old franchise, explaining why he tries to involve games’ original developers before commiting to a project.

“There has to be passion in the team behind the projects. That doesn’t mean that the team has to be the original team, every time. I’m not one — and maybe this is just my approach — I’m not one to come in and take a franchise from a team and remove them from the discussion or development process on how something new gets built. I think the original creators, the culture — frankly, some of the lessons we’ve learned from past experiences here are very important.”

Rumors of a new Banjo-Kazooie game have consistently popped up every few years since Nuts and Bolts was released in 2008, although a former developer called the franchise’s return unlikely earlier this year. Still, we ranked Banjo-Kazooie among the top Xbox franchises that deserve to return.

Unless Spencer’s remark is a hint at an actual Banjo-Kazooie revival, the closest thing to a recently released game fans of the franchise have is Yooka-Laylee, the spiritual successor made by several developers of the original Banjo-Kazooie. We gave it a 7 in 2017, saying “this genre, once thought to be dead, still has some life left in it.”

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.