It seems Rare won’t be remaking Banjo-Kazooie anytime soon.
Returning to old Franchises would be “the worst thing for Rare to do,” according to studio head Craig Duncan.
In an interview with DK Vine, Duncan explained that Rare is not interested in revisiting some of its old franchises, like Banjo-Kazooie and Conker.
“I don’t think it’s OK to just go make the same game that people loved before but with up-to-date graphics, audio and all those things […] Just making them again with whatever technology’s available today – that’s not Rare,” Duncan said. “I think that what Rare is, is doing the kind of games that only Rare would go do.”
“Like, no one else would go make Sea of Thieves in the way we’re making Sea of Thieves, and I think unless you’ve got a absolutely killer, amazing […] idea for how you would bring maybe an existing IP or maybe one of those franchises and do something new with it from a gameplay paradigm or scenario or something that could actually be genuinely different and innovative, I don’t think you just re-do them. I think that would be the worst thing for Rare to do, honestly,” he added.
“If I went and said to Rare, ‘hey, go remake all of the stuff that was kind of successful at the time but make it up-to-date,’ I don’t think it would be good, and I don’t think it would be relevant, and I don’t think people would really want it. I think they might think they do, but I don’t think they would.”
Rare’s pirate multiplayer game Sea of Thieves is due out for release in early 2018. Be sure to check out our hands-on preview of the game and how its water tech is improving PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Editor’s Note: Quotes in this article originally appeared without context and have been expanded for clarity. IGN regrets the error.
Alex Gilyadov is a freelance writer for IGN. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel and follow him on Twitter