Rumor(?): Banjo-Kazooie Racing With Sonic And Sega All-Stars

A few months back a document was leaked detailing Sega's future PS3 plans, and suspiciously mentioned the possibility of Rare or Fable characters appearing in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. At the time I thought that detail seemed odd to be included with Sega's PS3 plans, but it turns out there was truth behind it after all. TSSZ was the first to post the news with images of the Xbox 360 box art straight from Sega's website that prominently featuring Banjo and Kazooie in their own car and even in the title. This marks the second time that Sega has leaked this information. Somebody over there just can't keep a secret.

Now, if you tried to click on that last link to the box art, you were probably treated to the same thing I was when I tried to follow up on this story: a nice friendly "404 Not Found" error message. Apparently the announcement of the bear and bird wasn't supposed to come out yet, with the image of the Xbox 360 box art - as well as the Wii, PS3, and DS box art - getting pulled from Sega's site. The fact that the box art for all versions was pulled could just be Sega trying to seem less obvious than just removing only the 360's box. Or it could mean a bit more.

Which brings us back to that leaked Sega document. Why would Sega be telling Sony about having Microsoft characters in their upcoming mascot kart racer? The names Ratchet and Clank come to mind as a possible reason. Heck, with Banjo and Kazooie using a wrench in their last game, and both Banjo and Ratchet carrying their partner on their back, a simple re-skinning of the same character could bring a PS3 exclusive racer into the fold as well. As for the Wii and DS, I don't see Nintendo being quite as willing to lend its characters for a game that is directly competing with Mario Kart Wii, but maybe a C or D-list character could make the cut. Waluigi maybe?

Of course, no announcements have been made about PS3 or Wii exclusive characters, but then again, technically there hasn't been an official announcement about the Xbox 360 version either. Hopefully this whole mess will be cleared up before the Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing is released in February.

FIRST @ TSSZ: It's Real...Banjo-Kazooie in ASR [TSSZ News]
[via Joystiq]