After reports that an Xbox exec said "nobody cares about Banjo-Kazooie," he's correcting the record: "I absolutely know how much Banjo-Kazooie means to our fans"

News
By published

The 26-year-old platformer franchise matters

A screenshot shows Banjo and Kazooie staring at the glowing moon.
(Image credit: Rare)

A Spanish YouTuber reported that vice president of Xbox games marketing Aaron Greenberg said at a promotional Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 event that "nobody cares about Banjo-Kazooie." But Greenberg recently took to Twitter to deny those reports and assuage fans of the platformer series, who have been through enough. 

Current publisher Xbox Game Studios hasn't released a main Banjo-Kazooie installment since 2008, when Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts launched for the Xbox 360. To make matters worse, some Banjo-Kazooie diehards maintain that the 2008 game, in which players help the honeybear Banjo and tropical bird Kazooie construct vehicles, is too unlike the first two Banjo-Kazooie games and spoiled the franchise. 

When the series debuted in 1998, Banjo-Kazooie was established as a frothy fantasy where players could run and fly around vivid 3D worlds, not a greasy auto body shop. Though, to its credit, Nuts & Bo still features the things I find critical to the series' authenticity, like Klungo, the troll that looks like a booger. 

In any case, Greenberg promises fans that Xbox execs haven't totally forgotten Banjo-Kazooie. 

"I absolutely know how much Banjo-Kazooie means to our fans and gamers everywhere," he wrote on Twitter. "It holds a special place in my heart, growing up playing these classic games."

"Of course…" replied one disgruntled fan. "Banjo is so important, let’s never revisit or make another game ever again! Lol." Listen, we're taking baby steps here. Maybe in another 15 years, Xbox will finally figure out a way to bring Banjo and Kazooie back from the dead. 

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.