Banjo-Kazooie’s Own Developers Doubt There Will Be A Banjo-Kazoo-Three

gameranx.com:

Do you think it’s possible to make a Banjo-Kazooie Part Three? Unfortunately, there are a few experts on the matter who believe the answer is no.

Those experts are the people who made Banjo-Kazooie themselves. As reported by Video Game Chronicle, Rare veterans Chris Sutherland, Steve Mayles, and Grant Kirkhope shared in an interview their unanimous opinion that it just isn’t possible anymore, or at least, the way things stand today.

Let’s start with Christ Sutherland, who was lead programmer in the company:

“For a long time, there was doubt whether there was any audience for that type of game. Of course, there’s some audience, but is there enough to justify the kind of scale of game you would need now [for a first-party title]?”

Obviously, Nintendo does well with their platformers, but that’s Nintendo, and they’re often the exception to the rule. That’s the big question. The characters themselves, like we’ve seen with Smash Bros., people have a love for them. But do they love that game?

And if you made a different kind of game, would you be back to a Nuts ‘n’ Bolts thing, where it wasn’t what they were expecting? I’m still hopeful that something will appear, and we’ll all be proved wrong.”

If you examine the current batch of newer 3D platformers, unfortunately, Chris’ comments prove true. Games like New Super Lucky’s Tale, A Hat In Time, Yooka-Laylee, and the upcoming Penny’s Big Breakaway are all smaller games, with the first three being true independent games in terms of production.

The other big platformers are remakes of old games, like Crash Bandicoot, or reliant on very old, established IP, like Psychonauts 2 or Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. All these games have a hard limit to their appeal, with only Mario games