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Xbox's slate for the next year and beyond is looking bright after its big Xbox Games Showcase, with Spyro: A Realm Beyond being one of the highlights as the iconic purple dragon finally returns with a brand new game for the first time in 18 years. But what about another beloved 3D platformer that's been out of the spotlight for just as long?
Fans have been begging for a new Banjo-Kazooie game for almost two decades at this point, and obviously, Xbox is aware – back in 2023, the now-former Xbox boss Phil Spencer boss teased: "You've seen from our history that we haven't touched every franchise that people would love us to touch – Banjo fans, I hear you."
It may have been a while since that comment, but speaking to GamesRadar+, executive vice president and chief content officer at Xbox, Matt Booty, isn't giving an outright 'no' to the idea. Looking at Spyro's revival, we bring up Xbox's vault of iconic IP – Banjo-Kazooie included – and ask if Booty sees a future where other independent studios (like Spyro: A Realm Beyond's Toys for Bob) could work with the publisher on its legacy franchises.
"We're in the great position that we have our first-party studios, we have first-party publishing, who [get] to work with great partners, like Kojima [Productions], and we also have all of our great third-party partners from around the industry," Booty begins. "We've got ID@Xbox, which brings in so many great partners that are kind of on a different part of their game development journey. It's all of it. So, I think the answer is there are options to do all kinds of things, and we're certainly looking at those all the time."
It's a vague response – obviously, Booty was never going to suddenly confirm that a new Banjo-Kazooie game is in the works – but it offers some reassurance that Xbox is at least considering all the options it has available to it.
Hell, Fable went dormant for long enough – until the announcement of the new Fable, the last main, numbered entry came out in 2010. Even if you're counting all the spin-offs like the now-discontinued collectible card game Fable Fortune, it'll have still been nine years since the last game by the time the new entry launches in February 2027.
For now, only time will tell what the future holds. Xbox is undergoing changes right now under its new leadership, notably changing course from its multiplatform strategy to have more Xbox-exclusive games – at least, some of the time, so it's a period of evolution for the publisher.
Take a look at our roundup of everything announced at the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 to keep up with all the latest reveals.
