Yooka-Laylee: 6 Big Reasons To Be Very Excited
2. Rare Will Have Complete Artistic Freedom - No Microsoft!
Yooka-Laylee is the original intellectual property of Playtonic, which means complete freedom, just like the old days. Lest we forget the sins of the past - it’s worth pointing out for those who don’t know - why this is a spiritual successor and not a Banjo-Kazooie sequel, and why Yooka-Laylee is the godsend that fans have been hoping for.
In 2002 Microsoft bought 100% ownership of Rareware from Nintendo (shortly afterwards becoming known simply as “Rare”) along with ownership of its original characters, effectively making them Microsoft’s whipping boy. Now they mostly make Kinect games. Woo.
A franchise instalment would therefore need to be greenlit by Microsoft before anything Banjo-related can be made again, and judging by how well the last one went down, there are surely doubts on a corporate level about whether fans even want another sequel. The latest Banjo game to be made was called Nuts n' Bolts; a strange Lego-style car-builder-cum-adventure title that got universally up-turned noses from the game-playing public.
It just wasn’t a Banjo game - and it's about time Rare got back to what they doing best.