Steve and Alex from Minecraft weren't the only characters under the Xbox Game Studios banner to feature in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate broadcast yesterday. At the very end of the show, game director Masahiro Sakurai gave fans a first look at the amiibo for the Rare duo Banjo-Kazooie.
It'll be arriving in 2021, and while you might need a Nintendo Switch to make use of its NFC functionality, you can still just display it as a regular figurine on your shelf. It's based on the original design, not Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
As noted by Sakurai, this is an early prototype and will be made by Nintendo:
"This is a rare prototype, which was sent to my home. It's amazing to think that an official 3D model of Banjo & Kazooie is being made by Nintendo."
And for all of the Minecraft fans out there, a Steve amiibo will be released in the future. Sakurai thinks it'll probably be a lot "easier" to produce due to its blocky design.
What do you think of this Banjo-Kazooie figure? Would you like to see Rare make use of this IP again in the future? Share your thoughts down below.
[source youtu.be]
Comments (24)
MS is really bedding Nintendo hardcore. Super weird stuff.
I kinda hope microsoft has done a deal with Nintendo or something.
There is some romance going on there.
On your knees MS.
I would't be surprised if Gamepass Xcloud is going to be announced for the switch shortly after it is out of bèta.
Xbox has done more with Banjo-Kazooie on Nintendo systems than it has with the franchise on its own consoles. Hoping that will change at some point. If Ratchet & Clank PS4 and Crash Bandicoot 4 proves anything it's that there's still life in the 3d platformer genre beyond just Mario.
I'm getting that. I have some nice figures to go with my game collections for Nintendo, a few to go with my Playstation stuff and only Masterchief and Marcus Fenix for Xbox. So getting Banjo and Steve would make a couple of nice MS additions.
Microsoft, you see that even Bubsy is back, right? You know you have the most charming heroes ever, right? Hint: a bear and a bird.
Surely there has to be a Banjo-Threeie in the works? Right?!
Banjo Threeie confirmed... 😀
I wish 🙄....
Microsoft could pull an easy win with the fans here and potentially pull in some long term Nintendo fans with a pretty simple strategy.
Put together a team under the Rare banner with good 3d platforming experience then start them off with a ground up remake of the original game, maybe even all the original games like the Spyro collection. Hopefully some of them will already be fans but this would give them the chance to really get a feel for what fans loved about Banjo Kazooie.
Once that project is well along start work on the main event - a new banjo for series X/S announced around the time when the remake is released.
Crash has managed it, time Xbox started leveraging these IP.
Cue Count Dooku meme: “I’ve been looking forward to this.”
@Medic_Alert what I’d love even more is if they could collaborate with Nintendo, and create some games that could be released on both Switch and Xbox. Perhaps bring Rare Replay to Switch, then work on a new Banjo-Kazooie.
@AJDarkstar I don't see the point in working with Nintendo going forward.
I like the Switch but the power and speed differential is going to be mammoth from November and it was already a near miracle to get Ori 2 running well on that thing.
Unless the rumoured 'Pro' turns out to be a home console with much more power I don't think MS should go down that route.
It is important to give people reasons to be in the Xbox eco-system and collaboration with Nintendo just reduces that.
@Medic_Alert Yep, that's exactly why we won't see Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI or any other Xbox Game Studios game on PS5 except Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop because they're honouring the existing contracts.
@Medic_Alert it wouldn’t be that hard if done the right way, but just imagine how good a BK game could be with some guidance from Miyamoto.
They should commission Toys For Bob to make a new Banjo Kazooie game. Shame Activision won't publish a game that is exclusive to a single console.
@BlueOcean I suspect Starfield will be on PS5 because I would assume (but I don't know for sure) that you get your publishing deals in place before you are a decent way into making the game.
As Bethesda have been on that for a while I suspect that will be on PS5.
As for Elder Scrolls VI that seems very early in development and I just don't know when these sorts of deals are sorted. As such that one could go either way - particularly as the MS deal has been on the horizon for at least 6 months and maybe more - I'll never know how they kept that quiet.
Post that lot, we will see. Hard to make any judgements at this stage. I do expect to see all future games, post any current contracts to be Xbox exclusive.
@Medic_Alert The publishing deal with Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop were signed for a timed exclusivity. I don't think that ZeniMax have signed a publishing deal with Sony for Starfield or any other future game so they won't be published on PS5. It's not making judgements, it's the same logic that applies to every Xbox Game Studios games except the ones that were available before the acquisition like Minecraft or We Happy Few and rare exceptions like Ori on Switch, not first-party but Microsoft owns the IP so they just allowed the IP to be used for another console. Microsoft owns ZeniMax, they could even end the Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop contracts and pay a fine if they wanted to. They spent $7.5b for making the Xbox "the best place to play games" and that means no PS5 ports.
@BlueOcean it doesn't work like that.
When you buy a company, you buy all their obligations too. You can't just drop them.
Doing so leaves you open to legal action and that could be worth millions if not more and would be a tonne of bad publicity. A legal ruling could entitle Sony to a portion of all sales for those games they had contracts for.
There may be break clauses in the contract but they will be tied to certain circumstances.
This is all to provide certainty in commercial transactions.
In short cancelling/breaking/buying out a contract may not be an option.
Given that MS also has other commercial contracts with Sony they also have to consider the impact on other parts of their business.
It isn't a simple thing and lawyers will have already done a lot of the due diligence for this but there is a chance that even Phil doesn't know the full picture yet.
I say all this having studied law at degree and post grad level.
@Medic_Alert Let's agree to disagree.
@BlueOcean I mean you say that like I was giving an opinion and not a statement of fact but ok whatever.
Great, Now make a new Banjo game..
Can’t wait to pick it up
Nice looking amiibo, not really a shock they're making one since every Smash character has an amiibo.
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