From what they've said, Rare's just not interested in doing a new Banjo. I'm okay with that. People get wrapped up in the mascot platformer stuff but Rare did, like... a ton of different things. If anything, that was more their brand than Banjo. And since there's demonstrably no public interest in them doing different stuff with their existing IPs (Nuts & Bolts), they're just moving on.Why on Earth didn't Microsoft just get Rare to work on a proper Banjo Kazooie sequel? I actually had more fun with Banjo than Mario back in the day, and also had more fun with Diddy Kong Racing over Mario Kart. Neither got proper sequels. Damn shame.
If (big if) MS ever makes another Banjo it'll probably be through a different studio, like they did with KI.
SoT is a new IP.