Banjo-Kazooie 3 is going through the same secretive development process that Banjo-Tooie lived back in 1999 and 2000. The game is official, but there isn’t much information about it on the Net and it hasn’t been shown yet either. All that we still have is a vague release date (Xmas was confirmed twice as the tentative date), five possible plots proposed by Rare themselves, a virtually empty teaser website… but there are no many clues about when Rare will decide to unveil the game. Or are there?
Last week, as we hinted in a recent article, we were told by a source that Rare was going to show two projects to the press in a very exclusive meeting. It seems that only some selected media were allowed to attend this call; and as it’s obvious no information has seen the light of day yet, so without a doubt there are some NDA to avoid leaks until Rare approves the moment. This information has been extra-officially confirmed in the latest days through several boards (NeoGAF, RWP…) and even a podcast from 1Up, with Banjo-Kazooie 3 being one of those alleged projects. Apparently, those journalists would have played the game.
Besides, Rare have offered to our pals from The Rare Witch Project an exclusive piece of concept art from the game, that they are not allowed to unveil “until the information has been publicly revealed by Rare themselves.” That seems to indicate that, unlike the previous concept art shown last Xmas, this new one may feature some decisive details of the plot. An storyline that, in any case, Rare has already published in its website, but that has cleverly been mixed with other four false plots to keep the hype towards the game in extra-high levels. Both, the contest held by RWP and the Pantsboard with the five possible plots from Rare’s official site, have no deadline; but they can’t be delayed for too long.
In fact, at this very moment the Pantsboard represents an unexpected obstacle that may determinate the date of the final presentation of the game; unless there is a way for Rare to show the game without giving details about the plot, to avoid spoiling their own Pantsboard. But this point seems quite unlikely considering that probably the storyline may define the game mechanics and vice versa.
So, we are aware of the fact that some exclusive media have already managed to play BK3, but they have no permission to talk about it yet, while leaks have been effectively reduced to the minimum. We also know that there are two participation processes that involve the fans reaction that will not conclude in the coming days, so until those have ended the media that attended the presentation would not find their way clear to show their stuff.
With all that in mind, all we can do, though, is to speculate about a possible unveiling date and let the hype rocket up. From our point of view a late April or much probably May date have merits; but who knows with Rare, anyway, right?