Here's Why Conker's Bad Fur Day Never Got A Sequel
If you're a gamer who remembers the heyday of developer Rare Ltd. on the Nintendo 64, you might recall a mature 3-D platformer not to be played around your parents featuring a heavy-drinking red squirrel called Conker's Bad Fur Day. At the time of its release in 2001, the game was hailed for its advanced graphics, well-designed pacing, cute characters, clever yet lowbrow humor, and movie spoofs. An IGN review from the time even called it "quite possibly the most hilarious game ever created." The game had Conker defeating his villains, the Panther King and Von Kriplesac, and becoming the ruler of the land.
Considering all the kudos, you'd think a title like this would get a sequel — but Conker's Bad Fur Day never did. That's not for lack of planning, because a sequel was indeed slated. So, what exactly happened? Why would Rare plan a sequel and abandon it? If you know anything about video game history, you might already have guessed the answer to this question.
Rare was bought out by Microsoft
In 2002, Microsoft announced that it had purchased Rare. IGN confirmed at the time that Microsoft would now own all of Rare's major intellectual properties, and Conker was mentioned as being among characters featured in the announcement video. Rare became a developer for Microsoft's first console system, the Xbox, but another Conker game never materialized. In fact, many in the industry feel that Microsoft ruined Rare, although many also point to changes in the industry that might have also had a hand in Rare's fall from grace.
The game was apparently canceled once Microsoft took over. Rare started to focus on making games for the Xbox's Kinect system. At the same time, the company created a remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day, called Conker: Live & Reloaded. The game's lead designer, Chris Seavor, has said in an interview that this version began the day Microsoft took over. It released in 2005 for the Xbox with a few tweaks and a new multiplayer mode.
Today, it's probably too late to recapture the magic — at least with the original development team. "We're not the people to make that game, ironically, because we've changed. My tastes have changed and I've moved on," Seavor said in a 2015 interview with Videogamer. "You'd have a hard time getting it made now so the only way for anyone to play it is to play the original because I don't think there's going to be anything like it again."
What a sequel might have looked like
In 2008, Mundo Rare confirmed with Seavor that a sequel had once been planned. It was to be called Conker's Other Bad Day, and it would have focused on Conker's "somewhat unsuccessful tenure" as king, during which he spends all the treasury's money and then gets thrown into prison. The game starts with his escape from the castle tower, Seavor said.
He also told Gamer Quebec, as reported in Unseen64, that graphics and concepts were done for the sequel. It was to include a main bad guy named The Cthulpoo, shed light on Greg the Grim Reaper's childhood, include more parodies of contemporary movies, and feature an evil doppelganger of Conker.
Seavor has tweeted hints about the sequel sporadically. In 2019, Seavor revealed over Twitter that the plot centered around Berri, Conker's girlfriend, the return of the Panther King, and Conker's quest to regain the throne. "The story is more layered and deeper than the original game but I think this is a good thing the second time around, as more people are aware of the various characters and can relate to them more closely," an image reveals.
He also tweeted a chart showing how the game would have been structured, along with a document summarizing sections of the game. Unfortunately, gamers never got to see Seavor's realization of the game. But Xbox head Phil Spencer told fans in 2015: "We didn't say never" — so, you never know. There's still room to hope.