Xbox considered acquiring Banjo Kazooie devs’ new studio
Xbox had considered acquiring Playtonic Games in 2021, it has emerged.
One of the exhibits shown during this week’s FTC v Microsoft federal court case was a list created in April 2021 of around 100 developers and publishers that could be potential candidates for acquisition.
The full list, posted online by Xbox news account Idle Sloth, includes such studios as Bloober Team, CD Projekt Red, Level-5, Harmonix and From Software.
One of the more notable names on the list is Playtonic Games, the studio behind Yooka-Laylee and its sequel Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.
Consisting of many of the core start behind the Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country games, Playtonic created Yooka-Laylee as a spiritual successor to the Nintendo 64 platformer, the rights to which are owned by Xbox.
Had Microsoft decided to acquire the studio then, it would have led to the team behind the original Banjo-Kazooie becoming part of the company that owns the IP.
Ultimately, the list was filtered down to just 17 companies, of which neither Playtonic nor any of the studios named above were included.
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According to Microsoft’s document, the filtering process involved removing studios that failed to meet certain criteria, including a lack of original IP experience, being a “follower without innovation”, or a lack of “cultural fit” or “maturity in business”.
As previously reported, the 17 companies that made the shortlist included Sega, Bungie and IO Interactive, as well as the likes of Housemarque, Remedy Entertainment, Crytek and Paradox Interactive.
Despite talk last year of a potential revival for the franchise, there hasn’t been a new Banjo-Kazooie game for
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