The Xbox One generation has seen Rare successfully redefining itself after some tumultuous years under Microsoft’s leadership, but it’s still a very different developer from what it used to be back in the day. During the N64 era, under Nintendo’s ownership, Rare was constantly developer industry-defining titles such as Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

Of course, Microsoft owns these franchises now, and all of these have been dormant for a long time, which means there’s been more than a few questions about and demands for their revivals. If reports are to be believed, we might see Perfect Dark returning to some extent not long from now– but what about the likes of Banjo-Kazooie and Conker? Banjo particular is a franchise that millions of fans have been begging for a revival of.

According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer though, whether or not those franchises will come back isn’t a decision that has to be made by Microsoft, but one that has to be made by Rare. Speaking in a recent interview with Kotaku, Spencer said that those revivals are up to the studio, before adding that Rare liked trying out new things, mentioning Sea of Thieves, the upcoming Everwild, and the recently released Battletoads.

“I leave it up to the studios in terms of the things that they want to go work on,” Spencer said. “I have a lot of respect for Rare and the work that they do. They do like building new things, and they’ve seen success with Sea of Thieves. I think they’re really excited about Everwild. But also the response to Battletoads was nice. And I think [partner studio] Dlala did a good job with the game. And so I think it’s just always a balance. My inbox is full of: ‘Let every studio do new [intellectual property].’ And also: ‘Why have you brought back Crimson Skies and Blinx?

There’s been no shortage of Banjo-Kazooie rumours over the years, of course. Just in the last year or so, Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic has had to make multiple statements to quash rumours that it was developing a new Banjo game.

Meanwhile, Rare’s Everwild is currently in development for Xbox Series X/S and PC, but has no firm release window. Sea of Thieves will be optimized for the next-gen consoles at launch.

With next gen right around the corner, all of us have all sorts of wishlists in our minds, and most of them, of course, are all about the thing that matters most- the games. There’s so many games we’d like to see on next-gen platforms, so many franchises we’d like to see making a return. In this feature, we’ll be talking about fourteen sequels to Microsoft-owned franchises that we’d like to see on the Xbox Scarlett, at one point or another.

Some of the games we’ll be mentioning will be obvious picks, the kind that will inevitably show up sooner rather than later, while others will be more out there, as hopes and dreams go. In all cases though, keep in mind that this is a wishlist, not a prediction list. With all that out of the way, let’s get started.

HALO WARS 3

Halo will, of course, be a major presence on Xbox Scarlett – it’s launching with the next big Halo title, after all – but we’d like to see more from the franchise on the console than just its mainline games. Halo Wars started as an interesting strategy offshoot, and though the first game was definitely a flawed one, it showed plenty of promise. Halo Wars 2 made good on a lot of its potential, and was a much better game than any of us were expecting it to be. Our hope is that Microsoft will continue to invest in this branch of Halo, and allow Halo Wars to continue its upward trajectory with a third game.

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom that the modern market, reliant as it is on AAA games and titles geared towards a mature audience, no longer has any place for mascot platformers. Indeed, platformers and mascot games at large are a style of game that died out in the 1990s- and only Nintendo has been able to consistently keep both styles of games relevant (but the rules never do seem to apply to Nintendo…). Any time someone wanted a new big budget high profile platformer or mascot led game that wasn’t by Nintendo, they were told that such a game couldn’t do well in the market as it exists today.

And yet, along has come Crash Bandicoot, and it has convincingly established that a market for platformers, and for mascot games, very clearly exists outside of Nintendo- shouldn’t others be taking lessons and notes?

"Crash Bandicoot has convincingly established that a market for platformers, and for mascot games, very clearly exists outside of Nintendo."

Those others include Microsoft, of course, who hold the key to two beloved platforming mascots who were more or less contemporaries of Crash. Both are Rare properties- Banjo Kazooie and Conker. With Crash having been as successful as it was, is it not time that Microsoft look into a real, large scale revival for both of these series, because given the fierce nostalgia for them (arguably more nostalgia than for Crash Bandicoot, given that the platforming audience was more prominent on the N64), Microsoft could have a big hit on its hands if it played its cards right.

Crash Bandicoot (and the ensuing requests for Microsoft to revive Conker and Banjo), however, are emblematic of a far larger problem with Microsoft and Xbox- you know where this is going, because this is not the first time I have talked about this. The issue is the complete lack of depth and diversity in Microsoft’s catalog. This year has been a testament, a resounding testament, that the gaming market is not as AAA title centric as we thought it was, and that the kinds of games that used to sell back in the pre-HD era, the games that add variety and flavor to a lineup, are still compelling and commercially viable. This is the year that we have seen fighters make a resurgence with Injustice 2, Tekken 7, and ARMS, this is the year that racers have staked their spot in the ground, thanks to the continued success of last year’s Forza Horizon 3, the runaway success of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the surprise performance of Wipeout Omega Collection. This is the year when Japanese games have made a triumphant comeback, with Persona 5, NieR Automata, Yakuza 0, Nioh, and Resident Evil 7 all being great successes.

The important thing here is that, with one or two exceptions, these are all styles of games that are either missing entirely from the Xbox One lineup, or have minimal presence there. This, again, points to the larger problem with Xbox that is endemic to it- the utter lack of dimension or depth in its games lineup, which is the reason that the system has been unable to capitalize on the second winds it has gotten, the reason it has been unable to sustain its sales, the reason that Nintendo with the Switch is now threatening even its second place position. Games are what sell systems in this industry, and while Xbox at least has the advantage of having every major western multiplatform game, it is severely lacking in just about every other area.

"And as the success of Crash demonstrates, maybe Microsoft could start by reviving Banjo Kazooie and Conker. I know a lot of people who would buy an Xbox for that."

So, in June of 2017, the PS4 managed to be far and away the best selling console of the month, in the process having its best June on the market ever in its fourth year, when consoles are traditionally slowing down after having peaked in their third years- and it does so possibly on the back of Crash, and the multitude of varied exclusives and games it has received this year so far. The PS4’s continued success isn’t because it’s a stronger console (which it soon won’t be) or because of its marketing advantage (which has long since ceased to exist). It is because Sony has ensured it meets the needs of every and all kinds of gamers with the system’s lineup, giving it the most rounded lineup a system has had this side of the PS2. That is the reason that the PS4 is doing well, and the Xbox One is not.

So, Microsoft, if you truly want to catch up to Sony, just having a 6 TFLOPs box won’t be enough- no, it’s time that you start fleshing out your library, truly fleshing it out, rather than focusing on a handful of brands or safe games. Invest in ambitious new IP, follow upon games that may not hit it big the first time around, and above all, have the courage to flesh out your portfolio. And as the success of Crash demonstrates, maybe Microsoft could start by reviving Banjo Kazooie and Conker. I know a lot of people who would buy an Xbox for that.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to GamingBolt as an organization.

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.

An ex-Microsoft employee (verified to be so) has posted on Reddit, claiming that Insomniac, who recently released Sunset Overdrive with Microsoft for the Xbox One last year, originally wanted to try and reboot Rare’s classic Conker franchise, but that did not work out.

Apparently, Microsoft has been looking to capitalize on Rare’s stash of dormant IPs for a while now (and about time too), and the one they considered rebooting first was Conker. The studio they decided on to reboot the franchise was Insomniac, who had already worked on hit platformers before, and who was already working with Microsoft; however, Microsoft wanted the game out by the end of 2015, and Insomniac, wary of the shorter development cycle, declined.

This was not all the dirt that he dug up, though. For fans of Rare’s classic franchises, there may be some good news here- it appears Microsoft is looking at rebooting Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

You can check out the whole post on Reddit here for yourself, and see specifically what he said for yourself (he also shared what he alleges is an e-mail chain verifying all this). Now, the user does have a verified account (meaning he is not lying about his position within Microsoft), but as to how much of what he says you want to believe, especially given how soon plans change in this industry, is up to you.

Personally? If Microsoft would just capitalize on Rare’s IPs, I think they would go from having the weakest catalog of first party IPs in the industry to one of the strongest ones. So I hope they do it. Especially since I want to play those games.