A lot of fans have been expecting Microsoft to finally start utilizing the immense catalog of franchises that Rare has, and to bolster up their first party offerings accordingly. For a lot of them, this meant the return of some beloved Rare franchises, such as Banjo Kazooie, Battletoads, and Conker.
That last one especially has been something everyone has been expecting for a while- mostly because of all the teases and hints that Microsoft has been dropping (including the infamous Project Spark tease last E3). But in a recent series of exchanges on Twitter, Xbox’s head Phil Spencer confirmed that no Conker game was currently being worked on by Rare. What is more, no one is working on a Conker game right now- if your out had been hoping for another studio to revive the brand (similar to what happened with Killer Instinct), then you’ve lost that ground to stand on.
‘Rare is building something else, Spark community is creative, I’m looking forward to seeing what they build with the Conker assets,’ he said, referencing the repeated Conker related Project Spark teases. ‘Yes, [Rare are not working on a new Conker game],’ he stressed, just to make sure there was no ambiguity regarding his statement.
That said, he did say that Microsoft was not ruling out a return of everyone’s favorite foul mouthed squirrel some time in the future- ‘We didn’t say never, it’s just not being worked on right now by Rare or any other studio.’
Personally, I think that Microsoft should just stop screwing around and playing with people’s feelings if they have no immediate or foreseeable plans to bring back Conker. And I also wonder what exactly it is that Rare is working on.
