Xbox Studio Rare Excited About The Return Of Banjo-Tooie Next Week

Honestly, I'm kinda glad Rare and Microsoft haven't bothered with remakes of the Banjo games.

Meanwhile Xbox's head of marketing said that nobody cares about Banjo-Kazooie at an event the other day, so I'd probably not get my hopes up about anything more coming from it any time soon.

@Lizuka said Some YouTuber... probably true though. MS have been downright negligent with their acquisitions. Just the fact that they completely missed the opportunity to cash in on the Fallout show's success infuriates me.

If Rare had only stayed with Nintendo I wonder how many great games we could have got over the past 20 years. Shame really

@LikelySatan Microsoft is negligent with ALOT of stuff - which is probably why their gaming division won't last much longer. I'll give them two, maybe three years before much of their stuff is all on Playstation (and some of it on Nintendo)..

@quinnyboy58 I mean, we got Viva Pinata in this lifetime so it hasn't been ALL bad

@N00BiSH it's not all been bad and I think Rare would have changed a lot anyway but I think we have missed out on a lot of gold because of the Microsoft takeover. I still lament the loss of Donkey Kong Racing!

@Lizuka The Xbox boss said the opposite, because Xbox gamers begs for a new Banjo.
"I know you want a new Banjo, be patient."

Spencer said he needed to find a developer that had a passion for Banjo.

Rare themselves refuse to make any sequel and revive the past in general, and MS can't force them to make a Banjo against their will.
This is why Perfect Dark and Battletoads remake were done by others too.

@quinnyboy58 Wrong. Nintendo ditched Rare because of their long development times and messing around.
Just look at the long development time and all the changes in Conker N64 and Starfox Adventures.

Rare had full freedom to make anything they want under Microsoft all the time.

In fact Microsoft didn't even want them to make any Kinect games at all, but couldn't stop Rare as it's what they wanted.
Rare also made one of their best games ever on Xbox. "Kameo - Elements of Power".

Blame Rare and not Microsoft.

@N00BiSH Don't forget their biggest success ever "Sea of Thieves" that still have over 25 million players after 7-8 years on Xbox alone.
Rare also made the masterpiece "Kameo Elements of Power" on Xbox that were so ahead of it's time it still look great in 2024, but released in 2005, 19 years ago. In 2017 it got a free 4K/60 upgrade.

@Maubari Most of their valued exclusives, excluding Halo Infinite have already made the transition to Playstation and Nintendo. Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves (PS only), Grounded, Ori, Cuphead etc.

The move away from exclusive software began nearly a decade ago (2015) with the Xbox PC App, day and date PC ports and Game Pass, well before they began releasing on PS5/Switch.

I have a strong suspicion Xbox's next gen console will be their last push for 360-like dominance, before they continue to focus on their expensive acquisitions and rolling out said software to as many mediums as possible.

Because let's face it, their hardware division is all but finished right now due to what most of us would agree were two incredibly disappointing generations. Yet what makes matters worse is the majority of the damage done to the Xbox brand was so obviously self inflicted.

Giving away their exclusives to Game Pass and other consoles effectively killed the Xbox hardware as a viable proposition. If you have PC, PS5 and Switch in 2024 then you're missing nothing and surely have zero reason to invest in an Xbox console.

Microsoft Gaming today only proves the old adage that you reap what you sow, with the neglect of beloved IPs like Banjo Kazooie offering further proof if it were needed of their long held yet seemingly impossible to shake off incompetence as a gaming division.

It would be great to believe they could provide some competition to Sony in 2025 and beyond as it is most sorely needed right now and I suppose with new hardware in a few years comes renewed hope. With so many newly acquired IPs at their fingertips and PS5 struggling for exclusives, I'd like to believe things can only get better from here.

However, it will most likely take an incredible effort from Microsoft and an almighty shift in consumer mindsets to turn this rapidly sinking ship around.

If you're listening Rare / Microsoft / Nintendo

please get your heads together and do something with Diddy Kong Racing.

Either make a sequel, remaster the original or just re release the dam thing on Game pass and NSO.

I don't own an Xbox anymore but honestly I'd buy one and subscribe to game pass just for that game

Just need Diddy Kong now and then weve got most of the big hitters. On to NGC after please. Nothing new from Rare interests me nowdays. The origional team has long since disbanded. They're only Rare by name.

If only they could be as excited to continue the series.

I think Microsoft are totally right to bring their games to all platforms. I know XBox fans will feel a certain way about it, but Microsoft have basically grown bigger than their platform! Why would they limit themselves.

Where's BanjoThreeie??

love to see it is 1080p and widescreen.

rare just suffers from xbox type of gamer.
it does not belong to this platform.
not that the xbox gamer is to blame, i personaly think it suits ps or nintendo better.

still when you just leave youth sentiment and link any game from rare to nintendo, there where still great games made by rare.
nut n bolts was realy just awesome, but when it is not a banjo kazooie game, people stop playing it after an hour, wich is a real pity.

it is anyhow hard to make a good platform game wich inmidiatly hooks players, most have just lame caracters, microsoft should just ask rare to look at the fanbase, ask for their help. there is some pretty neat content been made last 2 decades.

@quinnyboy58 probably a high percentage of templated gameplay. For me, BK, BT, and DK64 were passable at the time but haven’t really held up well after this long. They feel so painfully slow.

That's clearly not my favorite and I mean this game and DK64 are kind of known to be the downfall of the collectathon genre and that's for good reasons unfortunately.

Now go for Conker and Diddy! That's all we need now!

@Jalex_64 Some wrong info there.

1.) Cuphead is a third party game that were only a timed exclusive.
Microsoft never funded it and MS never owned the IP.

2.) None of of the biggest Xbox exclusives is on Switch or PS5 at all.

Gears of War, Fable, Halo, Forza, Forza Horizon, Starfield, State of Decay, Flight Simulator, Age of Empires, Halo Wars, and Hellblade 2 etc. is on Xbox only.

Microsoft only ported smaller IP's like HI-FI, Sea of Thieves, Grounded and Pentiment among others.

Microsoft don't even own HI-FI anymore as Krafton bought the IP with Tango Gameworks.

@Toastmaster Microsoft need to put their foot down on the matter. A Banjo game made by Rare adds much needed credibility and makes the whole thing more appealing. If the heads of Rare are saying no, get rid of them and bring in some new heads. May seem harsh but I'm sorry, there is a reason Rare are judged by their past exploits... they've done virtually nothing of note for a long time.

@Toastmaster Nintendo is notoriously secretive about decisions like this and even on the Rare side they've never given a definitive answer. It was probably more that Nintendo's pride got in the way and didn't like how Rare conducted the affair. Let's not forget this is the same Nintendo that burned bridges with longtime partner Square.

Even Rare's founders have no idea why Nintendo didn't buy them so anything we say on the matter is spitballing. Probably the only person who knows now is probably Miyamoto and he probably won't ever say why out of respect. Hiroshi Yamauchi passing we probably won't ever know why.

@Toastmaster 1) Microsoft funded a big chunk of Cuphead's development, so it was still big news when the game came to a Nintendo platform. This was never a certainty. It was one less reason to buy an Xbox for those who wanted the game and owned another platform.

2) Microsoft is giving up more and more of its exclusives in order to justify their investments, no doubt in part due to their hardware continuing to flounder. I'll concede that the very biggest titles have yet to be ported but it's worth acknowledging that over the past year there has been a massive shift in their stance regarding ports, with Sea of Thieves perhaps being the biggest of games to make the transition and therefore most surprising.

Tango Gameworks was only closed by Microsoft in June, three months after the Playstation port in March, so this later buyout by Krafton is irrelevant to the point I was making. At the time of release, it was a Microsoft owned property and therefore very much their decision to try to earn back more of their investment by porting to PS5.

Give us Killer Instinct!!!!

@Kidfunkadelic83 The original team that made all the N64 classics is Playtonic now.

@Toastmaster long development times? They were releasing hit after hit YEARLY. That’s something Rare and only a few have achieved in all the history of gaming.

@GrailUK When you read what the cost is to make some games, it's only natural you maximize possible revenue streams.

Hell, Spider-Man 2 with a cost of 300M, having to sell at least 7 million units just to break even.

Also, GaaS are just best multiplat, otherwise you're just handicapping your game. For instance, Foamstars was an exclusive GaaS and look how that turned out.

But Diddy Kong Racing is next, right? Please?

@quinnyboy58 Viva Piñata is a masterpiece.

@Toastmaster All correct and necessary because of all the misinformation. Rare has always been quite independent and even published most of their games, including Diddy Kong Racing. Besides, Nintendo never owned Rare, they owned 49% of Rare, and they never wanted to own more.

@nocdaes The current boss of Rare looked down on Rare's old IPs that he did not oversee, years ago. He is now Head of Xbox Game Studios, a middleman between Spencer and Booty, so Rare will have a new boss and I think that's good news, if he did not appreciate Rare's legacy.

@Jalex_64 I disagree. On top of backwards compatibility that you did not mention as a reason to own an Xbox, the value of Xbox is a combination of the good things about PC and console, literally having free PC ports with the console version and free console remasters since Xbox One X. Financially, the only thing that matters to Microsoft (and the others) is the revenue, which is very high thanks to their premium subscription and software sales. They earn around $8B yearly just with subscriptions and they spend around $1B yearly just on third-party deals for Game Pass (revealed by Spencer in an interview). These figures don't even include software sales. The number of consoles sold is not important anymore, hence why Sony is making Windows ports. Nintendo was extremely lucky with the success of Switch (after Wii U) and their projects are relatively cheap, let alone full-price Wii U ports, so they don't need to worry about hardware or software sales like the other two, because of their expenses and revenue.

Regarding Tango, Tango had plans for Hi-Fi Rush 2, so they asked Microsoft if they could keep that IP and Microsoft agreed and only kept the other IPs, The Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo. They also kept the studio alive until a new buyer came. It's also worth mentioning that the founder and the main producers of Tango, including Mikami's successor, had left the studio before Microsoft decided to transfer its ownership.

@Wexter As you said, Nintendo didn't want to purchase Rare, so the Stamper Brothers looked for another buyer and that's where Microsoft comes. It's similar to ABK, that they were looking for buyers before Microsoft stepped in, and also similar to Mojang, whose owner posted on Facebook, "Who wants to buy Minecraft?" Bethesda literally said once that because of their huge projects it was not possible to have proper QA and they already had a good relationship with Microsoft before the acquisition. I think the relationship between Rare and Nintendo wasn't great because of the distance (it was the 90s), this factor has been mentioned in some interviews, and also because Rare was creative and independent, and I think Nintendo is obsessive, likes to control everything and own studios that follow Nintendo's templates, like Grezzo and Next Level, which are kind of the opposite of what Rare does. Just look at Conker.

@m0i Right. The future is multiplatform. Nintendo just had their luckiest generation yet, because after Wii U, they started a new era with a successful Switch, full-price Wii U ports and they managed to break records with weak hardware that means relatively cheap software projects, while topping the sales charts. However, we don't know what their future will be.

@Yoshi3 Right. Rare kept the Nintendo 64 alive game after game, and also reinvigorated SNES with Donkey Kong Country, right when the competition was rising.

@Banjo- One of the biggest advantages Nintendo had this generation is due to the old hardware, the technology has been figured out long ago, which also keeps the production cost down, compared to Series X/S and PS5, it's still some trial and error when developing games, which in turn just adds to production cost (at least, an assumption about the latter systems mentioned).

Thanks to Nintendo being Nintendo, they were actually covered against the inflation and long production cycles due to the company's philosophy when it comes to their hardware.

Also, I'm not sure it was really luck, imagine this, the home consoles were hit (kinda) or miss but where Nintendo truly always shines, is their handhelds, those also do well but this generation, they essentially unified both those markets, which is another contributor to this generation's success.

All in all, I don't believe it was this big 200 IQ move they were making but the way Nintendo does things, combined with events from recent years, the stars simply aligned which amplified it's success to quite an extent.

Omgggg Tooie was actually the one we owned as kids! We didn't know it was a sequel so we loved it and there wasn't a reason to compare it with the first one. People don't seem to like it but I know this map like the front of my eyeballs.
Also Hawk Tooie. Ok I got it outta my system I'll do the world a favor and go offline forever

I wish Nintendo owned Banjo Kazooie, I want a Banjo Threeie, and I’m not sure if Microsoft can or will make it.

Please please please bring Conkers Bad Fur Day next!!!!

@m0i Yeah, by luck I was referring to the Wii U-Switch transition in the same generation, with not many new games, even after unifying the home and handheld divisions, and how games that already existed on Wii U found more success on another platform.

Nintendo has always been successful with handhelds, no doubt about it, but Switch was a hybrid and was based on the Wii U concept. Yes, it's also a handheld. Like you said, it was old tablet technology and that also kept development costs low compared to Microsoft and Sony. I remember DF expecting Switch to include the X2 chip instead of X1. Not just that, but it was downclocked to improve battery life.

The question is, will the successor of Switch be as successful as Switch? I think it's impossible, at least in terms of revenue, because Switch had so many benefits (lucky facts) attached to it, the cheap projects and the full-price ports included. The successor is not as weak, no more ports to re-sell and expectations are higher in 2024, not to mention the additional competition that are handheld PCs. Of course, as a player, I don't care about them being richer than rich, but the games they make. Actually, I loved Wii U, I supported it, and Switch disappointed me in many ways.

@PikminMarioKirby Xbox said that they hear us, but they also said that it depends on the studios. Rare has a new boss, but nobody knows what they'll do after Everwild. I think that at least faithful remakes should be made by Rare or any capable studio, like Crash Bandicoot N.sane Trilogy and others.

@Yoshi3 It's true they released games on a consistent basis, but that was mostly because they would develop 4-5 games at the same time.

By the N64 era they rarely managed to hit their originally announced release dates. Banjo, DK64 and Goldeneye all got delayed. And the projects they worked on most recently at the time of the sale, Conker and Dinosaur Planet, had the longest delays of all. Nintendo allowing Rare to work on a 3D platformer like Conker for 4 years was incredibly generous compared to normal development times for that era. Miyamoto had to crack the whip on Dinosaur Planet and force the team to throw something together asap just to complete Starfox Adventures.

I love Rare and I actually doubt delays were the reason they got sold because Nintendo is notorious for doing the same thing with their games, but they were definitely one of the slower developers of that era.

@m0i "it's still some trial and error when developing games, which in turn just adds to production cost."

A good example is Hellblade II, one of the first full games on Unreal Engine 5. It had a long development time and it's graphically really impressive, but it's shorter and more linear than the first game. The good thing about these projects is what the teams learn about development and technology that will be the new standard.

Sea of Thieves is not everyone's cup of tea and it's massively based on online interaction, but it's the best-looking Unreal Engine 4 game, in my opinion, and it's fun with friends. It also has excellent sound. Of course, I miss Rare's platformers; not just the 3D ones, but I consider the Donkey Kong Country trilogy the best 2D platforms ever along Super Mario World.

I wish Conker's Quest / Twelve Tales would have been made instead of the raunchy version. I remember seeing it in Nintendo Power and was excited at the time. Oh, what could have been. It's not too late to finish it and bring it back.

@vio "The original team that made all the N64 classics is Playtonic now."

Not really. The creator of Banjo-Kazooie still works at Rare, Grant Kirkhope and others became freelancers and most of Playtonic's staff is new. There are some at Rare, some at Playtonic and some elsewhere.

@Banjo- There's a slim chance the successor will be that successful but honestly, for a dedicated gaming device to have such success is already an anomaly. Sure the PS2 is still higher in numbers but I believe Switch will overtake it with time.

As it should tbh, there's always so much talk about the Nintendo gimmicks but for the PS2, the cheap dvd player was essentially the gimmick so for the sake of gaming, it should be dethroned by a device that's for gaming and pretty much only that.

The next outlier will be when a great idea comes with great execution and offers something that's just a game changer for a wide demographic, like the Switch's hybrid concept pretty much was. Also, would never be able to replicate it due to hybrid handheld pc's have started popping up everywhere so the novelty isn't all that impressive anymore.

Still, people can say about the Switch's hardware what they want, can't deny the Switch is at the forefront of the growth in recent years developments on the entire hybrid concept. Valve all of a sudden releasing the Steam Deck is a very clear result of Switch's success. And to an extent Wii U's faillure.

on a side note: I have both a Steam Deck and a Wii U and the ergonomics Wii U tablet and Steam Deck share a bunch of similarities that makes me wonder if there wasn't a Wii U tablet present when designing the Steam Deck

Oh, that only took seven and a half years. A rather ridiculous and completely unnecessary wait considering you have been able to just buy Rare Replay on xbox for like forever.

@m0i You are correct about PS2. I would add PS1 that was super easy for it to play CDs and also pirated games. Wii U was a great concept, but it's funny how a mistake can ruin so much, like the introduction of Xbox One as a multimedia system and the introduction of Wii U by Iwata with GamePad in hand saying, "This is Wii U."

I agree about handheld PCs, not just Steam Deck, but Asus Rog Ally, Lenovo Legion and the rumoured Xbox handheld. They are important because PC gaming is evolving. I also wonder if Nintendo will eventually release games on other platforms, e.g., a store on Windows devices. I know that some people believe that it's impossible and I'm not saying that it will happen, but I think it will depend on the evolution of gaming habits and the fact that Nintendo uses hardware as part of the profit, but the alternative hardware is more appealing. Actually, if the rumoured specs of Switch 2 are true, it's obvious that they are influenced by the power that the competition introduced in the handheld market that Nintendo ruled this generation.

How’d they pull off widescreen on an n64 game? Can this be done with other N64 games? Where’s Diddy?

This has been the last major N64 game I've been waiting for. I honestly expected to see Donkey Kong 64 first but I'm so happy to see my boys back from the war. I'm sitting across from my childhood copy as I write this and it feels good knowing the N64 version is back officially in some way once more

@Banjo- Seeing as how protective they are of their IP, I doubt direct install to a hard drive without access restridtions is something they're fond off. They'd need a new department with people exclusively tracking and shutting down inappropriate mods lol.

But as long as they can keep doing what they're doing, keep costs low for hardware and software while having the publishing deal with The Pokemon Company, there isn't really a reason to get a piece of that PC pie.

Also, this generation, at least for Nintendo's core identity of games, really shows it's healing again. Honestly, the PS3/360 generation really caused quite a shift in trends. Every western company trying to make their CoD clones and the trend of yearly releases (outside of Fifa and co;), everything had to be this realistic and serious setting, Japanese games were all of a sudden not all that anymore and the Wii was mocked for being underpowered and being a kiddy console and why? Well it was underpowered but hey, motion controls also made it to the mainstream and both other companies made their own alternatives.

Now seeing that games can be fun and colourful again, is a step forward so as long as both these styles can be accepted side by side and Nintendo upholds their expertise on maximizing the possibilities with hardware that's already past it's experation, that special Nintendo vibe in their games and quality, there's no need to bother with PC. Sometimes, if a company is profitable, is good enough sometimes and this gen has been stellar for them so, you do you Nintendo, at least iimo

Rare Replay should have gotten a Switch release. Should have happened, years ago.

1/2 @Banjo- I disagree. On top of backwards compatibility that you did not mention as a reason to own an Xbox, the value of Xbox is a combination of the good things about PC and console, literally having free PC ports with the console version and free console remasters since Xbox One X.

I think we both know the free PC ports thing is just a gimmick that few people take up, either because they don't have a serviceable PC or, as is more likely, they're more than happy just playing the game on the platform they purchased it from, with no reason to play through it again on a computer.

Even the fact you bring this up demonstrates a certain desperation on your part to justify owning your preferred platform. The remasters are a nice extra but that’s rarely a deciding factor for consumers when choosing a new console, certainly not more than the exclusive games currently available for the system.

Financially, the only thing that matters to Microsoft (and the others) is the revenue, which is very high thanks to their premium subscription and software sales. They earn around $8B yearly just with subscriptions and they spend around $1B yearly just on third-party deals for Game Pass (revealed by Spencer in an interview). These figures don't even include software sales."

We're talking strictly hardware here, which outside of the US, has been a cataclysmic failure for more than a decade now with continually declining sales. However, even Game Pass take up is going backwards at this point, with Microsoft being forced to increase the price by 25% whilst the quality of the games remains the same, thereby making it a less attractive product for consumers.

The number of consoles sold is not important anymore, hence why Sony is making Windows ports. Nintendo was extremely lucky with the success of Switch (after Wii U) and their projects are relatively cheap, let alone full-priced Wii U ports, so they don't need to worry about hardware or software sales like the other two, because of their expenses and revenue.

No company, not even Microsoft, exports goods to other countries with the intention of seeing them being returned. Their Xbox hardware hasn’t been successful or profitable outside of the US in the last two generations. Do you seriously believe they throw money away on designing and supporting a console and all the infrastructure that comes with that just to see it fail? Yes, they are clearly pivoting to a subscription and publisher model but even on this front, they’ve had many setbacks, with take up of Game Pass flatlining since the pandemic and the publishers they have paid extortionate amounts for producing commercial failures such as Redfall or nothing whatsoever in many cases. The legal battle to win Activision Blizzard was certainly more costly and protracted than they ever expected as well.

2/2
Regarding Tango, Tango had plans for Hi-Fi Rush 2, so they asked Microsoft if they could keep that IP and Microsoft agreed and only kept the other IPs, The Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo. They also kept the studio alive until a new buyer came. It's also worth mentioning that the founder and the main producers of Tango, including Mikami's successor, had left the studio before Microsoft decided to transfer its ownership.

No one is disputing the reasons for dropping Tango Gameworks, although of course clarity is always welcome. It doesn’t disprove the fact that the Xbox gaming division is porting an increasing amount of its previously exclusive titles to other consoles, which was the primary reason for even mentioning Hi-Fi Rush in the previous post.

The specifics will vary for every release but the broad truth remains. As a console manufacturer, they’re becoming less and less relevant, primarily because they have fewer exclusives. Now of course that is largely by design but it wasn't always the case. They're in the early stages of transition and this process is likely to continue for several more years.

As they continue to pivot their business model, I don’t see them continuing to pursue console production beyond the 10th generation, as their future intentions have become increasingly clear. Subscriptions first, publishing second and hardware manufacturing a very distant, almost irrelevant third. It seems likely their hardware division will cease for good if current trends continue into the next generation. Now that may well suit Microsoft if this new model is successful but it certainly doesn’t make it any less true.

@quinnyboy58 Rare has made some gems but they make a lot of stinkers, so probably not as many as you think.

Now only we PC gamers are waiting to officially have these on PC.

@Member_the_game Unless they gut the Kremling character, Diddy himself, and any other Donkey Kong references from the game, I can never see Nintendo allowing that on Game Pass.

@Maubari How can all of their stuff be on Playstation (and some of it on Nintendo) if Microsoft doesn't have a gaming division anymore? Doesn't make sense. Maybe no Xbox console hardware.

@Jalex_64 I just explained to you what you seemed to ignore. Most of your text here is either ambiguous or wrong, so I will just clarify a few things quickly, so we don't get into an endless loop that nobody wants.

"Even the fact you bring this up demonstrates a certain desperation on your part to justify owning your preferred platform."

Wrong. All platforms are valid options. I had all consoles last generation except Vita. I have been playing on Nintendo since SNES. It's the opposite, you are biased and ignore all the good things about Xbox and look down on it. This sentence of yours is actually quite desperate.

"The remasters are a nice extra but that’s rarely a deciding factor for consumers when choosing a new console."

That was just one of the many reasons to choose Xbox because you were talking as if you knew every gamer in the world, and you are wrong. You were trying to make it sound like Xbox is pointless, so I mentioned some reasons that you ignored on purpose and you focused on remasters, and I forgot to mention free cloud saves as another reason and very important for multiplatform players (console, mobile, Cloud, PC). Anyway, the best-selling games on Xbox and PS are third-party, so exclusives are not the main reason either. It's only different with Nintendo because they have a smaller (in terms of expenses and risks) and sustainable ecosystem.

"with Microsoft being forced to increase the price by 25% whilst the quality of the games remains the same, thereby making it a less attractive product for consumers."

Sony has increased prices more than Microsoft. Nintendo releases full-price ports. You forgot to mention that Game Pass includes ABK games now. They also introduced a cheaper new tier with online services and certain games joining later than on the most expensive. If you seriously are trying to make Game Pass look like bad value, you have no idea what you are talking about.

About the number of consoles sold, which is the main reasoning in all your comments, you should take into account the other figures I mentioned (stated by Microsoft themselves) because Xbox is very profitable because of them. With the addition of ABK, Microsoft has become the second video game publisher after Tencent. As long as there is a console market, there will be an Xbox, because it makes money and because Microsoft makes hardware on top of software. Not just that, but Xbox runs Windows, PC games run on Windows and guess who owns Windows. Unless you make your own games and have a unique ecosystem like Nintendo, the number of consoles sold is not the metrics to consider for planning your business and ruling out the console market, look at Sony making Windows ports after limited sales on PS5. Does it mean that PS5(Pro) or PS6 will be their last console? No. Actually, we don't really know, but they will make consoles as long as there is a console market, like Microsoft and Nintendo.

It's completely fine to not like Xbox, but you can't be that biased and pretend that you are speaking the truth with such arrogance, ignoring half of the facts and speaking about the future as if you have travelled in time, while also speaking on behalf of all Xbox users when you are not even one.

@Markiemania95

My preference would obviously be for them to just put it on NSO.

The fact I jokingly said I'd buy an Xbox just to play it just shows how much I really want it.

The DS remake wasn't great so unless you have an old N64 knocking about there's no other legal way to play it

@vio thats right. Although it wasnt amazing Yooka-Laylee is the closest i think weve got to a Banjo style game.

@m0i Yes, I'm also happy to see more developers making smaller and more colourful games and I also think that Nintendo is currently in a great position and, although I don't agree with many things they have done lately, I can't wait to see what's coming from them in the next years.

For a while, it was like everybody but Nintendo wanted to make the next Fortnite (looking at Concorde now) and, generally speaking, online games full of microtransactions, because they thought that they would get richer that way (like Epic and others), but that changed, because the fact that something is successful, doesn't mean that the whole world is willing to play that and every clone indefinitely. It's logical, but logic seems to not apply to some financial reports.

I'm going to use an "offline" and third party example, Ubisoft. I like many things about Ubisoft, but not long ago, they stated that they were going to focus on Assassin's Creed, as if they were not focused on it enough. They neglected other IPs, but the last AC (Mirage) was smaller, trying to be more like the original game. They also released a fantastic Prince of Persia and, before that, Immortals Fenyx Rising, which I loved. The fact that they focused so much on AC's template for so long, was not beneficial in the long term and even affected the impressive Avatar (the best-looking game of the year according to DF) and Ubisoft's value as company. Another recent game I loved and doesn't follow modern templates is Capcom's Path of the Goddess.

So yeah, we need the variety, the big and small games. Quality and variety are the only things that can keep the industry healthy. It's funny when a random indie game becomes the best-selling game or the game of the year while a Fortnite clone fails.

Yep, it sure is the "modern way" to re-release a classic on an online service without the ability to purchase and own your own copy of it. Instead, we just rent it and it gets removed when said online service gets taken down to make room for something else that makes more money.

I know this applies to all the games on the Nintendo Switch Online, but I wanted to poke a bit at the choice of words here. It is indeed the "modern way".

To those looking forward to this, I hope you have fun and I don't mean to rain on your parade. I just feel that they could've released something similar to Rare Replay(both digital and physical) that collects all the games, but on the Switch instead.

Suurrrreeeee they are, LOL.😂🙄

I see that the comments are mainly discussong Rare itself, bur on the hesdline. ‘ANOTHER modern way is not i would call ‘excited’

@Banjo- The issue with Ubisoft is simply a big chunk of their player base are the same ones that blindly upgrade their Fifa and CoD. Not saying they are terrible people or all of them are, far from it some of those are very vocal demographics while having a portefolio of 2 - 5 games they are actually informed about, rather than, let's say, you and I have been doing here today, a retrospective from a few generations back.

What I'm getting at, is I feel Ubisoft's revenue is very intertwined with Assassin's Creed and a big part of AC players doesn't really care about any other IP from Ubisoft.

Then there's the constant exaggerated hate towards Ubisoft. Ubisoft does something like they always do, again more of the same but when they try to do something with a new IP, it gets less of fair chance than games from other publishers.

Ubisoft gets more flack than EA in recent years, despite EA having a far greater track record of shoddy practices than Ubisoft. Not saying to go hate on EA instead but so much energy people spend on actively hating Ubisoft. Not saying they're perfect but there's worse things they can do than add a black samurai in the game, as far as I can tell, their games on release have a standard of not being broken (correct me if i'm wrong). And yea, the pre-order missions and pricing of deluxe editions have room for improvement but they aren't an essential part of the core game's experience.

What people (especially those loud and vocal demographics in the beginning) don't realise or don't wanna realise (Youtubers who rather rage bait than look with an objective mind) for everything that could be better, there's far more that could be worse.

@quinnyboy58 Nintendo knew what they were doing. How many great games has Rare made, over the past 21 years? Grabbed by the Ghoulies? Perfect Dark Zero? Kameo? Viva Pinada and Sea of Thieves are okay, but they are not in the same caliber as when they still had the Stamper brothers.

@m0i Right. Ubisoft doesn't do everything right (who does?), but when it released Immortals Fenyx Rising, some people said that it was a Breath of the Wild clone and made fun of it, but didn't play it. All games are inspired by others, Breath of the Wild included. Actually, Assassin's Creed is one of its sources... and Skyrim... and Monster Hunter... The problem is that, in this industry, some publishers are scrutinised and criticised harshly and others are given a permanent free pass. I have read reviews of great games with complaints like it doesn't innovate enough, but then the same reviewer gives 10/10 to games that are literally a copy-paste or a DLC semi-sequel. Like the youtubers you mention, that are looking for clicks or engagement. Sometimes, you can only try yourself or read user opinions for reliable feedback.

@Lizuka Microsoft buying Rare was like purchasing a Lamborghini & leaving it in the garage 364 days out of the year.

I know others have already mentioned it, but Diddy Kong Racing on NSO would be a big win.

Id also like to see the Donkey Kong Land games on the GB NSO

@CooCooKaChoo it's one of those ones where I'd speculate Microsoft bought Rare just so that Nintendo didn't have them anymore rather than because they planned to do anything with them.

@Banjo- they just need to start making Banjo content

@Kayloo Right! Our favourite video game characters, after all. 😊

I'm just glad I'll be able to play Banjo-Tooie on a Nintendo system again.

About Grunty Industries entrance, it's not as bad as Canary Mary's second race.

@electrolite77 Microsoft sold 58 million Xbox one systems and the Series systems are selling at a similar though slightly lower rate. That is not by any stretch of the most fevered imagination cataclysmic.

My comment had little to do with overall sales. It was referring to sales outside of the US for the last two systems, which have continued to decline in countries like the UK, Japan, Australia and mainland Europe, where sales decreased by 47% in February. The overall trend, as well as this year's worldwide sales figures are the major concerns, not necessarily last generation's overall sales figures taken in isolation.

A quote from The Standard in August sums up the situation very well: "On July 30, the company posted its earnings – and they made for worrying reading. The numbers revealed sales of hardware (that is, consoles and kit) were down 42 per cent, an even steeper drop than the 31 per cent decline reported in the previous quarter."

However, even if we look at this generation as a whole, Xbox are more than 7.5m consoles short of where they were at this point with the Xbox One in 2017 and that's with the Series S as a cheaper alternative. Sales peaked in early 2022, so I will be pleasantly surprised if this trend can be significantly turned around before the end of this generation.

Of course, these sales will be largely irrelevant if overall gaming revenues continue to increase, as was the case when they acquired Activision Blizzard. In August, these revenues were reported to have increased by 44% (It would have been 3%), which at least bodes well for the immediate future of the Xbox ecosystem.

Xbox president Sarah Bond's announcement in February also offered much needed reassurance for at least the immediate future of their hardware business: "There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday. We’re also invested in the next-generation roadmap. What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation". So there'll clearly be a system of some description to release for the next generation but beyond that there still lies a lot of uncertainty.

Their position in the market as a hardware manufacturer will no doubt continue to come under question due to the disappointing sales we've seen since mid-2022. Hopefully however, these rumours can be put to bed with this announcement and they can get people highly anticipated for what's to come, as I don't believe they can be 100% sure of what their future looks like in this space until they significantly turn hardware sales around.

So glad I'll get to play this game at last. Just need Diddy Kong Racing, DK64, and Battletoads. I'm sure CBFD is en route.

Great to have this on NSO so that I don't have to endure the frame rate of hhe original N64 release anymore.

No idea why Rare / Microsoft haven't released Rare Replay on switch yet. There missing a great opportunity.

Pretty funny considering their head of marketing told an audience recently that "nobody cares about Banjo Kazooie". They're still happy to milk us for 400 dollar statues and whatever else they can slap the characters on to.

@popey1980 Killer Instinct is already available on Super NES NSO. The N64 version may follow soon. The arcade versions may come as arcade archive titles later on though that depends if Hamster, Rare, or Nintendo want anything to do with those. As for the modern one with Aria, the Battletoads, and the ghost girl, Nintendo and Sony fanboys will NEVER get that game on their platform ever. Go buy a PC or Xbox for that one.

@quinnyboy58 If Nintendo had purchased Rare or Banjo Kazooie we would have multiple Banjo Kazooie games now like Kirby. It is a joke we can't get a new Banjo Kazooie game when so many far less popular franchises have been making comebacks with new games and remakes in the past decade including some that were inspired by Banjo Kazooie.

@Toastmaster The people working at Rare now are not the same people that were working there before. Those people now work at Playtonic Games (Playtonic Games was founded in late 2014 by Steve Hurst, Steve Mayles, Gavin Price, Jens Restemeier, Mark Stevenson, and Chris Sutherland, all of whom previously worked at Rare) and they want to continue the Banjo Kazooie games but they won't sell them the IP so they created Yooka-Laylee.

That is why modern Rare don't care about it.It is a similar story with Ubisoft who won't make new Rayman games anymore. The Creator of Rayman (Michel Ancel) is no longer with the company and he was the only one that was trying to get new Rayman games out and was working on a Rayman 4.

@Banjo- You are right. Nintendo never owned Rare.
They owned 49% as you say which means Nintendo had no control over them.

@Yoshi3 During N64 days almost everyone made games in 1 year and were nothing special for Rare.
Development times started to increase after 2000 in general, not just Rare.

Today it takes 5-8 years to make one AAA game.

@DollyrotsFan1 Actually the original Rare fell apart already during N64 when a few went on to make Time Splitters.
The original Rare is no more, but the current Rare were still able to make a games mega success like Sea of Thieves.

I think "Sea of Thieves" will be released on "Switch 2".
Switch couldn't handle it and is why it didn't get it.

Yes, UBI killed off several franchises after key people left.
There is no one left to make a new Splinter Cell either and is why they do a remake instead.
In fact no studio at UBI wanna try make a new SC, because they said the pressure were too high as people were more demanding than ever Solution? Don't waste a big budget on a SC game that most likely will fail.

It's almost impossible to please people nowadays and is the reason why so many major franchises is gone.

Give us Rare Replay on Nintendo Switch.

@GrailUK Exactly. Gaming industry is bigger than ever, but console sales never increased the last 20 years.

Even Switch with over 145 millions can barely catch up to the 20 year old PS2.
Not even Wii which even sold to grandmas and grandpas who never played games, could catch up to PS2.
In general consoles peaked at 100 millions.

Looking at the size of the gaming market today a console should have sold 300 millions...

Easy to see why Microsoft expanded outside Xbox.
In fact even Sony expanded to PC 4 years ago for the same reason.
PC is a competitor to PS5, but at the same time it's neutral in the gaming market.

There is currently over 300 million PC Gamers, a number consoles will never reach.

@Alexneon Impossible, because Switch is too weak to emulate Xbox 1 and Xbox 360.
They can't remove 15 games and call it Rare Replay.

And besides. You can probably find a used Xbox One for 100$.

Rare Replay physical have been in bargain bins for only 5$ for many years.
It's full price were only 30$ back in 2015 when i bought Rare Replay physical.
30$ to match 30 year Anniversary.

Rare Replay were the reason why i bought Xbox 9 years ago, and i also bought the Xbox One X at launch in 2017 so i could play them and other games in 4K/60.

You can bet Microsoft will port Sea of Thieves to "Switch 2" if the hardware is good enough.

Switch didn't get Rare's "Sea of Thieves" because it couldn't handle it.
The game became a huge success on PS5.

It's a cross platform game where PC, Xbox and PS already are playing in same games.

@Toastmaster With Rayman I heard another problem is Michel Ancel was not well liked at Ubisoft and he was accused of toxic mismanagement, abusive behaviour and sexual harassment among other things making the chances of a series he created even less likely of a comeback now which is understandable but pretty unfair to fans of the franchise since Rayman is a popular character.

I find Joss Whedon to be a nasty piece of work going on the things that have come out about him but I will always love Buffy and Angel.

@Toastmaster They could make a Donkey Kong Collection with Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 and 3, Donkey Kong 64 and Diddy Kong Racing similar to the Mario All Stars collections.

@DollyrotsFan1 Nintendo would have added the ROMS to Switch online instead as they wanna sell more of the most expensive sub.

Also. Nintendo can't hire Rare to make a collection anyway as they can't hire a 1st party MS developer, especially since it can't be released on Xbox too.

If Nintendo would allow Donkey Kong on Xbox, Microsoft would probably agree.

@DollyrotsFan1 Yeah, but Rayman peaked at Rayman Legends on Wii U anyway. It would have been hard to make a better one.

There is still a chance a new Rayman can happen, because UBI outsourced Prince of Persia among others. Since it were a success, perhaps same developer are hired for a new Rayman in 2D?

Rayman Legends on Wii U is the only version i like, because all other versions are dumbed down due to lack of second screen.
I own Legends on PC, Xbox, Switch and PS too.

Rayman 3 on PC from year 2003 actually supports modern controllers on top of 4K/60. It looks great on PC too.

@Toastmaster " Rare Replay were the reason why i bought Xbox 9 years ago, and i also bought the Xbox One X at launch in 2017 so i could play them and other games in 4K/60."

Same here! I got Xbox One and Rare Replay at the same time. I can't understand how some people here haven't done the same. I have never regretted my decision and, like you, I've upgraded my Xbox since.

@Banjo- That's cool. People are not a Rare fan if they don't own a Xbox that got Rare games for 23 years.

Original Xbox One were never a expensive console, so it's mind boggling that people waited nearly 10 years so far for a Nintendo port that will never happen for technical reasons.

In fact even the powerful Xbox One X from 2017 cost less than a Switch, and also plays 4K UHD discs and you can have 100's of games installed on it at the same time if you connect a 8.TB HDD to it.
With 16.TB on Xbox you can even install Call of Duty like 200 times.

It would be much more expensive to get Rare Replay work on a Nintendo console than on a Xbox.

The thing is that Xbox 360 games uses some kind of Windows hack to work, and that hack is 100% incompatible with any OS Nintendo ever made. Microsoft don't have a Xbox emulator, so forget emulation too.

There is no way Microsoft would spend 10's of millions to port them all to a Nintendo console when they didn't for Xbox.
Rare have the source code, and they have no interrest in touching anything old they made.

@Toastmaster They are not true fans if they haven't bought Rare Replay! You are right, it's not that Xbox One emulates Xbox 360, but that they managed to translate the original code so it could be played on a console with a totally different architecture and running Windows. Otherwise, it would have been impossible. It took years to get games running, some cases were very challenging and many were improved eventually in terms of performance and resolution, including Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. Microsoft's engineers did an awesome job, and backwards compatibility is reason enough to own an Xbox One or Series X|S, plus all the reasons I discovered later: excellent and reliable hardware, comfy controller, generous services, huge catalogue... Basically, Rare Replay made me an Xbox fan.

@Banjo- In the beginning these Xbox 360 games only ran at 1 FPS in the first tests. It's amazing that they later could even upgrade a lot of them to native 4K60.

They ended up with 632 games out of 2155 games as they
couldn't get permission for a lot. On top of it 100's of expired movie, racing and sports games. Then were a bunch of Kinect games and other games requiring special controllers.
Anyway. If you bought the 360 games, you didn't need to pay for them again. All the upgrades were free.

Either way, you also know well why Rare Replay is impossible on Switch and also on "Switch 2" as none of them runs on Windows based OS.

Splinter Cell Blacklist were a special case. They replaced the 360 textures completely with the superior PC textures, and is why the 360 game increased 9.GB in size.

There is other reasons to own Xbox too. Game Pass, Xbox Anywhere and Smart Delivery.

The reason why i own all systems, is because i don't like to miss out.

If you are stuck with one system. Rule #1. Never beg for ports, because it's your own fault that you can't play the games you are missing out on.

@Toastmaster All true. Game Pass, Xbox Anywhere, Smart Delivery, free upgrades and time-saving Quick Resume. Another thing I can add is that Square Enix and Microsoft replaced the low-quality and highly compressed cutscenes of the original Xbox 360 version of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy with the raw material, massively improving the quality of the cutscenes.

Also, as you have explained, Rare Replay is technically impossible on Switch or Switch 2 so, in this case, begging for a port is pointless.

@Banjo- Cool. I didn't know Final Fantasy XIII also got upgraded like SC Blacklist. Perhaps there is others too with same treatment.

Need for Speed Most Wanted on Wii U wasn't a port of Xbox 360/PS3 version.
They ported the PC version using PC textures on Wii U version. Wii U version is so bloated with new Wii U exclusive features it looked like a Wii U exclusive game. lol

Criterion worked day and night for 6 months to upgrade it for Wii U, then EA delayed it for months for no reason which made Criterion angry as they worked overtime for nothing.
When it finally released, there were no mention of Wii U upgrades and exclusive features at all on the cover.
EA sold this impressive port as a generic port with nothing new...
EA got a new boss during that time which weren't a fan of Nintendo and is probably why.
The boss before him were a Nintendo supporter.

@Toastmaster I have that version of Need for Speed Most Wanted! It was well received, but I didn't know that it was that difficult to make. I also have the Armoured Edition of Batman Arkham City that I know has special features on Wii U, like the prototype of Breath of the Wild, until Nintendo decided to downgrade it because of Switch. Wii U is fascinating.

@Banjo- Cool. I bought it for Wii U too.
Criterion were Wii U fans and wanted to utilize the console instead of doing a sloppy straight port from the weaker consoles 360/PS3.

The 2 Call of Duty games and a bunch of others games also had Wii U exclusive features.
Wii U even had a touch screen map for online PvP, so you could see where others were at all times. You could also choose perks etc. directly on the fly while on other systems it weren't as easy. It also had LAN support among other things.

Then there is Tekken Tag Tournament with Wii U exclusive modes, and it also had Nintendo character skins in it.
Lego City Undercover had Nintendo easter eggs etc.
Mass Effect 3 had good Touch screen features too.

Technically Splinter Cell Blacklist is by far best on PC, but Wii U version were the most fun version.
The Touch pad were the multi gadget in the game, and the drone camera were on the touch screen instead of TV like other versions.
On Wii U you could see TV screen and drone screen at the same time.

A 2K NBA game could use touch pad as a body scanner for characters among other things.

There were many who cared about doing something extra for Wii U.
I bought nearly 80 physicals for it, and around 155 games on eShop. I also have a HDD on mine with lots of games installed.
Wii U officially supports 2 HDD's at the same time.

Switch didn't get HDD/SSD support, because games would crash as soon as people lifted Switch out from the Dock if ran from external storage.

Let me buy it plz

@electrolite77 You’ve used phrases like “their hardware division is all but finished right now” and “cataclysmic failure” which are just not right. Overall sales are what matters.."

So we're just going to ignore all the recent sales figures and pretend their hardware is selling just fine right now? The current userbase will fast become irrelevant if nobody buys any more Xboxes. That may well sound like hyperbole to you but surely you can acknowledge this sales trend needs to be reversed at some point if they're to continue designing and manufacturing consoles long-term.

Hardware exists as one part of a wider business. Theres a lot of GP subscribers on their Consoles. Further, they don’t even need to get to 58 million or be anywhere close to 360-era ‘dominance’ for it to be worthwhile.

You seem to think that I believe their whole business model is failing when I don't and have never stated this, my primary concern was for the future of Xbox home console hardware and a healthier, more competitive home console market. If Xbox pivot to solely focusing on PC Game Pass, handhelds, cloud based gaming services etc and leave home consoles behind in a couple of generations, that will clearly no longer be possible.

As for the 'last push for 360-like dominance remark?' Of course they don't need to dominate the market to be deemed successful, that was never my point but it doesn't mean it's not their ambition, however unlikely we may deem it today. However, getting back to sales figures comparable to two years ago and offering a greater level of competition to Playstation would be a solid start and reduce the chances of a monopolistic marketplace going forward.

Nobody knows whether there will be much of a Console market after the next generation but they won’t be going anywhere soon.

Of course they'll still be here for the next generation (As I already acknowledged with my 10th gen remark, along with my inclusion of Sarah Bond's quote about soon to be announced next generation hardware) However, whether they'll choose to leave home consoles behind beyond this period will all depend on sales figures improving on the last 18 months which, whatever you choose to believe, have been extremely poor by all accounts.

Those of us wishing to see home consoles stick around should be allowed to acknowledge this and hope for better, especially with the state of the current gaming industry being what it is.

It can only help the price of entry to the medium if Xbox improves its worldwide sales, especially at a time when Sony is only increasing hardware, software and service prices. We shouldn't ignore the clear correlation between these price rises and Xbox ceding market ground to them in the last couple of years.

In summation, I sincerely wish Xbox every success in the years ahead because us gamers and indeed the whole industry needs more competition in 2024 and beyond if it's to remain sustainable and attractive for future generations.

Cool to see but to me Xbox has just not bothered with much. Then again Sony has what Sackboy/Ratchet/Astro....... a bunch of remasters of Japan studios games that filled in that gap nicely. Sigh.

There is seeking devs wanting to and then there is like Gex/Blinx we see nothing much done with them even when let go.

Different times, different goals, different audiences, different boring outputs of games and going retro instead.

Couldn't care less about nostalgia from Indies (inspiration, trace/copy paste even if original assets but the ideas are recycled then out of the box prototyping from my experience) or AAA or safe design or whatever money making we see. Controller gimmicks sure, but if the game design sucks I'm sticking to retro got plenty to play/researched already.

Pitfall could have a chance besides Joe Wander, Tad, Indy, Tomb Raider, Uncharted yet is left to die. Why is Lost Expedition not on Gamepass and BC by now as it's the only title Xbox got and is a Metroidvania before Prime 2 came out so had Prime 1 to go off of I think. They aren't the same but to me was my first understanding of a metroidvania of sorts before Prime 1 I played many years later now.

No Activison Lives on the Xbox....

Banjo getting it's re-experience for fans and out there for newcomers is fair but at the same time just 2 games, a GBA 1.5 adventure and Pilot that don't really get that much attention of releases ever.

Rare's creativity has gone either way as staff changed and times change for sure. Audiences are clear these days or staff/leadership and more as well.

I don't hate Viva Pinata or Goolies or Kameo/etc. I think they are great titles for sure.

Look at Retro's output beside DK/Metroid what original games or Zelda spinoffs or other projects have they had cancelled? Same could have happened to Rare, Retro's supposed projects are amazing. Even what they were working on before Prime 4 taking as long as it is due to the restart. What were they working on I wonder? We will have to wait or it maybe was cancelled then just postponed to make way for Prime.

Retro and Rare can be kind of compared in that way, not the same but enough in a way.

@nebzila "Pretty funny considering their head of marketing told an audience recently that "nobody cares about Banjo Kazooie."

That was just what the Youtuber said for clicks. More here:

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/10/xbox-exec-dismisses-rumour-that-he-doesnt-care-about-banjo-kazooie

@electrolite77 You are right.

@Toastmaster Wii U is versatile and the best Nintendo machine for retro gaming. It's natively compatible with Wii and GC, similar to 3DS being natively compatible with DS and GBA. Like you say, you can connect two HDDs or two USB memory sticks and the official Wii U or Switch adapter for GC controllers. It supports a lot of Nintendo controllers: Wii U, Wii, GC...

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for Wii U is a title I have, my favourite character being Slim Bob. 😁

@Banjo- Cool I think Wii U were the best Nintendo console, because it also supports generic PC HDD, SSD, LAN Adapters etc. and didn't require overpriced custom hardware.
The big touch screen is great as a remote for homebrew etc. too.
Wii U also had a lot of nice system features missing on Switch on top of folders and better home screen. Wii U also had lifetime stats for games, Miiverse etc.
I remember i got some free Steam keys on Miiverse from developers if you purchased Wii U versions. Good times.

@Toastmaster I agree! I love Wii U and also New Nintendo 3DS (the smaller version). I made some drawings on Miiverse, the Gamepad was a lot of fun for messing around. I find my customised SNES Mini a joy to use, it's amazing how the SNES controller still is so good for 2D gaming. Switch, on the other hand, I haven't it enjoyed as much.

Yep. Wii U still have a lot of hardcore fans who also think it's better than Switch in many ways. Wii U were a one of a kind console and 3DS were similar in several ways.

@Banjo- of course!

@Juga_Juga This game had widescreen support in the options, so it's not really a new feature. I had a CRT at that time so I never tried it, but the option was there.

Maybe it's just my weird mind, but I feel everyone, even Nintendo, wants to see Banjo-Kazooie back. Well, everyone but MIcrosoft themselves.

Again, this is just my own weird perception, not a fact.