Former Activision-owned studio Toys for Bob is currently developing a new Spyro the Dragon game, something fans have wanted for a long time. Because the studio now has a track record of reviving old 3D platformer franchises and has a working relationship with Banjo-Kazooie and Spyro owners Xbox, the team was recently asked if they’d be interested in making a new entry in the series. Toys for Bob sounds very down to do that, if given the chance.
In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, as spotted by FRVR, Toys for Bob studio head Paul Yan and associate creative director Lou Studdert were asked if working on Rare’s beloved Banjo-Kazooie franchise had ever been discussed internally. “How frequently, you mean,” replied Yan with a laugh, making it clear that he and many others at Toys for Bob, which previously made Crash Bandicoot 4 and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, were big fans of Banjo and the rest of the characters who got their start on the Nintendo 64.
“It’s a franchise we love,” said Sutddert. “As platformer fans, Banjo’s the top of the heap. We have huge, huge fans of that franchise on our staff. You know, I’m talking they have the Jiggy as their profile pic, that sort of thing, that level of fan. We love the franchise.”
Sutddert made it clear that, “if the opportunity ever arose, that’d be amazing.”
“If you look at the throughlines of the types of games that we like to make, I can imagine [Banjo as]part of that stable as well,” added Yan. “Like those characters, you know, I think you described as nostalgic. I think that’s one way of looking at them. I think of them as timeless. Iconic.” He further explained that Banjo-Kazooie “speak[s] to a timeless place” within players, explaining that they are the kind of games Toys for Bob loves to work on. Yan, in fact, could not stop gushing about how the Banjo games were “wonderful.”
But before it can possibly make a new Banjo one day, Toys for Bob has a different 3D platformer to finish. The team is currently busy working on Spyro: A Realm Reborn, which was first announced during Xbox’s big Summer Game Fest event earlier this year. It’s a game that it only got a chance to make after escaping the Call of Duty mines back in 2024.