The man who wrote the music for Banjo-Kazooie says the bear and bird could come back — if only someone at Rare or Microsoft would say yes. Composer Grant Kirkhope recently revealed that “like three companies” have pitched making a new Banjo-Kazooie game, and every one of them was turned down. It’s a small anecdote with a big lesson about how much value sits frozen inside a dormant gaming icon, and why the companies that own these characters so often leave them on the shelf.
What Grant Kirkhope Revealed
Kirkhope, whose credits stretch from the Banjo games to the Donkey Kong Rap, said he knows of roughly three separate outside companies that approached Microsoft or Rare about reviving the series. None succeeded. His blunt explanation: “Rare just typically say no to everything.” Even so, his own outlook has shifted. He used to insist there was zero chance of another Banjo-Kazooie, and now says he feels there’s at least a slight one — and that if it happened, he would “absolutely” want to be involved.
That’s a notable change in tone from someone with a front-row seat. It suggests the conversations are happening more often, and that the appetite — from studios and fans alike — hasn’t faded even after decades without a proper new entry.
Why Microsoft Sits on a Beloved IP
Banjo-Kazooie lives under the Xbox umbrella, and that ownership is exactly why the character rarely moves. Big platform holders tend to guard heritage IP tightly, wary of handing a treasured name to an outside team that might get it wrong. The result is a familiar standoff: interested developers exist, the brand recognition is enormous, and yet the rights holder keeps saying no.
There’s an opportunity cost to that caution. Every year Banjo stays dormant is a year its nostalgia value goes unused, at a time when Microsoft is rethinking what Xbox even is. A studio weighing a leaner, more independent Xbox has every reason to squeeze more out of the catalogue it already owns rather than betting solely on new bets.
The Case for Banjo’s Return
The market has rarely looked friendlier for a revival. Retro-flavoured 3D platformers keep finding audiences, remasters routinely outperform expectations on cost-to-return, and fan-led preservation work — like the recent native PC port of Donkey Kong 64 — shows there’s real, organized demand for Rare’s back catalogue. A modest, faithful Banjo revival wouldn’t need blockbuster budgets to make sense; it would need a rights holder willing to take the swing.
For now, Kirkhope’s story is a reminder that the barrier isn’t interest or talent. It’s a corporate “no.” And the fact that he’s more hopeful than he’s been in years hints that the answer might not stay “no” forever.
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