Gregg Mayles, the veteran Rare designer and director, will reportedly depart the studio following yesterday’s sweeping cuts of Xbox workers and initiatives that included the long-in-development Everwild.
Mayles’ departure, as reported by VGC, ends an influential profession at Rare stretching again greater than 35 years, to the studio’s origins creating video games like Battletoads for NES and thru its N64 heyday, throughout which Mayles helped design characters comparable to Diddy Kong.
Maybe greatest often called the director of N64 traditional Banjo-Kazooie, Mayles extra lately served as artistic director on hit pirate recreation Sea of Thieves. During the last 4 years, nonetheless, Mayles has been overseeing Everwild, Rare’s long-gestating fantasy follow-up that can now not see the sunshine of day.
Everwild’s cancellation, now confirmed by Microsoft, comes six years after the sport’s preliminary public announcement, and after round a decade of work by Rare on the challenge total. Louise O’Connor, who had been serving as the sport’s producer, may also reportedly depart Rare, after greater than twenty years.
IGN has contacted Microsoft for remark.
The final Everwild trailer, launched in July 2020, carried the next description: “Everwild is a model new IP from Rare. A novel and unforgettable expertise await in a pure and magical world.” Again in February this yr, Xbox boss Phil Spencer stated he had lately visited the studio to atone for the sport’s progress. “It’s good to see the group with Everwild and the progress that they’re making,” Spencer stated on the time.
However yesterday afternoon, Xbox made Everwild’s cancellation official through a company-wide e mail from Xbox Recreation Studios boss Matt Booty. The Initiative’s Excellent Darkish reboot has additionally been cancelled, in addition to different unannounced initiatives comparable to a brand new MMO from The Elder Scrolls On-line developer ZeniMax On-line Studios.
“We’ve got made the choice to cease improvement of Excellent Darkish and Everwild in addition to wind down a number of unannounced initiatives throughout our portfolio,” Booty wrote.
“As half of this, we’re closing one of our studios, The Initiative. These selections, together with different modifications throughout our groups, replicate a broader effort to regulate priorities and focus assets to arrange our groups for larger success inside a altering business panorama.
“We didn’t make these selections frivolously, as every challenge and group symbolize years of effort, creativeness, and dedication.”
Picture credit score: YouTube.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You may attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social