Speaking in a live chat with some Rare fan sites, Rare's head of design Gregg Mayles revealed that that Banjo-Kazooie 3 as we see it today is actually the third iteration, with the two previous concepts having been scrapped.
"This is actually the 3rd Banjo 3! We scrapped two other approaches, didn't think they offered a big enough step forward," said Mayles. "So I would say it started after Ghoulies. But then got scrapped a couple of times. Then I worked on Piñata. Then came back to Banjo again! Oh, and I think I did some puzzles for Mr. Pants too!"
