Xbox Fans Think Phil Spencer Is Sending Them Secret Messages Through His Banjo-Kazooie Achievements

As loath as I am to give this tenuous conspiracy theory the benefit of the doubt (it very much feels like the woman who thought Russian president Vladimir Putin was speaking to her through his ties), there is precedent for these kinds of shenanigans.

Spencer notably wore a Battletoads shirt, for example, during a Windows 10 event as a tease for the Rare Replay compilation announced at E3 2015 five months later. Then, in 2020, Spencer snuck an Xbox Series S into the background of his Gamelab Conference keynote address three months before its official reveal, which both further endeared him to the Xbox faithful and worked as brilliant marketing for the console’s smaller profile compared to the Xbox Series X. He’s proven he can be a sneaky guy on occasion.

Over the last several years, Xbox has managed to develop a cult of personality around Spencer through careful management of his image as a man of the people rather than a stuffy corporate executive. And while Spencer himself previously spoke out about the ongoing “tribalism” in gaming, it seems more and more as if Xbox is a-okay with cultivating the kind of devotees who see secret messages in their dear leader’s online activity, especially as first-party offerings peter out and Game Pass faces criticism.

Will Xbox revive the Banjo-Kazooie series this weekend? We’ll have to wait and see, but at least these rumors give certain elements of the fandom something juicy to focus on besides, I don’t know, harassing Xbox personalities and developers.