as long as the new stuff is good and not just shovel wear then okayyy

Just as long as we can get a PD-XBLA-style prettied up port of Jet Force Gemini on XBLA from 4J, then I’ll be extatic.

=)

You just had too rape Banjo first before coming to this decision, huh Rare?!

to comment on what PDzero said, i guess it’s safe to assume rare was un satisfied with banjo’s preformance… they said they wanted banjo to become microsoft’s mascot, well since he falls into the “old IP’s” catagory, looks like they gave up on that goal, unless they give the character away to different developers like sega racing for example… but given rares recent history… a different developer may end up doing banjo more justice than banjos parents themselves. im disapointed though, because everything seemed like they were going to do another banjo: interviews saying so, banjo in sega- (one of their mid-air tricks was using kazzoie to fly)the christams card showing honey combs in a game globe, and hinting at banjo fourie, and rare saying they wanted banjo to become a mascot… but oh well…..

Before I voice my opinion, what does IP mean?

yeah, their words are full of contradictions haha =(

Here are my 2 views on this subject

View #1:
Rare is taking a break from the old series’ for a while and are developing new original games and characters to introduce to their family. I mean Rare only has 12 series, 5 of which have had games during the 2000s, and the rest have yet to make a comeback. My guess is that they’re planning more series’ to make and when that’s done they MAY return to the old IPs.

View #2:
Rare has put their IPs on hold and are developing second hand games that do not have to do anything with their licenses like that shitty fitness game that they’re rumored to be working on or those other launch titles I mentioned a month ago.
Either way I still have faith that they’ll produce quality games as long as they don’t stray away too much from their style.

He never actually said they weren’t working on any updates to things they’ve done in the past, just that they won’t do a sequel unless they can do something neat with it.

I would consider Banjo an ‘active’ IP at the moment, anyway, even if it is one of their older ones. I get the impression he was referring to old Rare classics such as SabreWulf, Blast Corps, etc.

But yeah, I think it’s a good thing Rare are moving on.

I hope you’re right Mr. Summer! I can’t believe I didn’t think about that.

as long as it’s fun and can be played with good conrtol ill be happy. i’m just not a fan of the shovel wear, that i’m afraid will at least be rares first natal game. i’m not saying that they will only do shovelwear for now on but you can almost guarrentee that their first natal offering will be. i like the way fable III is handling natal though, traditional control with natal enhancements. not unlike mario galaxy’s spin move. but also good point about banjo and him being an active IP, but still they should work alittle faster don’t you think? a character doesn’t become a mascot in the publics eye if he/she only appears in one game for two years (and a cameo appearance in another) did nintendo take forever to make pokemon a hit? no. so rare should step it up with banjo if they expect todays short attention spanned people to stay involved with the character!

The thing with a mascot like Mario is Nintendo often use him in a variety of different game genres – karting, sports, RPG’s, etc. Even in early 90’s he’d done kart racing, painting, a Tetris-styled game or two, and a tennis game on the Virtual Boy. That’s not to mention the various Game & Watch games he had his name to, or the Donkey Kong titles.

Is that what it really means to be a mascot? Mario just seems such a… universal character. He can appeal to anyone, and any age, and seems to fit just about anywhere. You know you’re going to have fun if Mario’s in the title. Do Banjo and Kazooie have that same appeal? I’m not sure.

They can certainly carry their own platformers. And I’d like to see what they could come up with if they built yet another entirely different style of Banjo game. Banjo and Kazooie sort of have that Wallace and Gromit appeal about them – at least in Nuts and Bolts. I’d like to see them build on that. I’m just not sure it’d work to just stick him in something like, say, a sports game.

i agree, which is why i think it’s a tough goal for rare to accomplish. i don’t know exactly what it means to be a mascot, but what i do know is that a mascot has to be the face of a company, and one game isnt going to make you a face of anything. i’m not saying throw him in a bunch of random things, but if you rememeber, rare WAS developing a sports game where your avatar would wear a rare character costume… so they might actually just make a sports game with banjo in it, doesnt seem out of the question. not that i agree with the idea, but it’s a definet possibility. plus like you said- rare said to expect banjo in alot more, and not just feature games…so we’ll see what happens i guess…

Yeah, and that mentality destroyed a good franchise.
Why they had to do nuts and bolts?
If something works, then keep doing it, stick to the formula.

Come on, it wasn’t like there were many banjo games ( im not taking into account the Gameboy ones)just two, is not like Mario, where there are dozens of games. that’s when they can try something new.

yeah.. that’s what i’m saying. they’re not doing a good job. that was my whole point.

What Rare can do to make Banjo more known is of course market more, but I suggest having a great marketing campaign on the next Banjo game through

1. Showing Gameplay more often to people to really hook them(I remember a lot of people stopping to pay attention to the Nut’s and Bolts trailer but due to its lack of marketing it probably didn’t have a lasting effect.)

2. Actually having a lot of advertisements on tv.

3. Make sure to have laugh out loud moments for the trailers.

4. show that the xbox crowd can have as much fun with it as the kid crowd.

Along the way though they can include him as downloadable or a guest for multiple games like the sega racing ( Maybe you can have a shooter game like Call of duty feature him as downloadable player. Just imagine how hilarious it’d be to see Banjo online using Kazooie as a gun.)

Or

They can also bundle a Banjo Kazooie plush toy with the 360.

The possibilities are endless.

Exactly.

Right. why have they missed the mark so bad? (not that i dont love my plush conker) but they make a plushie for a teen-adult audiance… okay… but they wont make banjo merch. a game aimed at all ages?- more suited for toys. idk what theyre thinking some times. on a side note- ive said a million times banjo would lend to a great lego-ish figure series. if they sold packs of vehicle parts and different packs of characters and such that would have been PERFECT for the new game. or a burger king deal like the origonal banjo was supposed to have, where like if you collect all 6 toys, it makes a big car. idk! so much un tapped potential. lunchables cardboard cutouts aint gonna cut it

I also think Rare should’ve marketed Banjo a lot more, but they should’ve done it when the first game came out. The game was a big hit and received excellent reviews, and that should’ve made them give Banjo and Kazooie more publicity. That would encourage people to buy future B-K games, and encourage Rare to produce a lot of those games. Let’s face it people, Rare was dumb. They may have produced many amazing games, but if they were smarter, they would still be a top game producing company nowadays.

agreed, so much missed opportunity

They’ve been on the wrong platform. They always had the power of Nintendo’s brand behind them when they were at their peak, and had the benefit of having full control over one of Nintendo’s most stand-out characters – Donkey Kong. Nintendo’s own releases were very infrequent back then, too, allowing Rare to fill out a large chunk of the N64’s catalog themselves. Nintendo’s name was on Rare’s games, they felt and played like Nintendo’s games; they were probably confused as being from Nintendo by most people.

The new Banjo probably flopped because it was released on an entirely different platform to an audience that has, for the most part, no appreciation of the franchise. On top of that, the series had been in limbo for almost ten years, and the game had next to no marketing.

Thankfully, Natal might create a new audience for Rare. Whether or not that’s a good thing remains to be seen – I guess it depends on what sort of games Rare are producing for it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, Natal is an unknown quantity. If few developers are supporting it, if even just for the first year, it leaves the door open for Rare strut their stuff with with very little competition. Especially if the experiences they provide are unusual and exciting.

It’s just like the N64 days when developers flocked away from Nintendo’s cartridge-based system, making Rare one of the few developers creating big releases for the system.

I seriously doubt Natal will provide anything worthy of Rare’s time if all they could come up with after 6 years was a damned game called “Porch Light”. Wankersoft isn’t giving much support to Rare either. I believe Rare needs support as well. They’re capable of promoting their characters, but they have little support from Microsoft. When they were with Nintendo Rare’s characters were all over the place. Especially Donkey Kong. Even today Rare is soemtimes mentioned by Nintendo. Wankersoft couldn’t care less about what they do as long as it doesn’t involve Conker. They’re a very small company and need as much support as they can get from the company who…has rights to them. I wouldn’t say “own” because they’re certainly NOT Microsoft’s lap dogs.

Microsoft made a good effort with Viva Pinata, I thought, what with the cartoon, miniture toys, and the vision camera support for Trouble in Paradise. Although I don’t remember seeing it advertised on TV at all, but it could be I just missed them.

Rare will get a hell of a lot more support if Microsoft want Natal to be a success, though. The fact that Rare’s recently been able to buy an extra development studio goes to show how much faith Microsoft must have in Rare in the long term.

And has anyone noticed Rare’s looking for a communications guy? It sounds like the job George Kelion used to do – getting the word out amongst online communities and stuff like that. So it sounds like they mean business.

Now I’m pissed because if they don’t go back to any old IPs then that means there won’t be a new conker game. Grrrrrrrr!!!

No old IPs returning in the future? WTF?! I want conker to return in 2010 or 2011 or 2012.

So what they are saying is that unless they can think of an idea as bad as nuts and bolts then they won’t return.

Actually perhaps no more conker wouldn’t be such a bad idea given how bad N&B was. I have defended rare to the death in the past right until I played the new banjo. Playing the original was great but playing that just didn’t work.

They cancelled all those great games and now they are producing shovelware for natal.

Ok, now I join the “Rare sucks now” bandwagon.

No more conker is a bad idea because there hasn’t been a new conker game in almost a DECADE!!!

If I don’t see a conker sequel in another 3 or 5 years then I’ll flip Rare off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know what you mean cain. I myself got my hopes up to see some sequels. But MS/Rare went and canned them all.

Its pretty funny actually. According to this very site a conker sequel was canned by MS. This is really whats puzzling me now. PD2, Kameo 2 and a Conker sequel all been canned. Some of the best games Rare have created since they joined the xbox and yet all of them are canned (apparently it is MS’ doing).

Now I have to ask: If Microsoft cancel all Rare’s decent legendary games such as Conker or PD, and Rare are coming up with stupid ideas for the likes of Banjo WHY DID THEY BUY THEM? They are cancelling all the games we actually want. Rare say they don’t want to do sequels yet articles I’ve read say MS cancelled them and don’t want Conker, PD etc.

Microsoft is Microshit because they canceled conker 2.

WOW MICROSOFT YOU LOVE MAKING EVERY RARE FAN PISSED DON’T YOU!!!