Everwild Canceled: Rare’s Mysterious Adventure Shuts Down as Xbox Faces Major Layoffs
Bad news for fans of Rare: after years of waiting and speculation, Everwild has officially been canceled. The game, which was first revealed nearly six years ago, won’t be making its way to Xbox players after all. The cancellation comes at a tough time, as Microsoft is currently laying off almost 9,000 employees, hitting the Xbox division especially hard.
- Everwild by Rare is canceled after almost a decade in development
- Microsoft’s recent layoffs affect Xbox and Rare studios
- Very little was ever revealed about Everwild’s gameplay
- The game’s direction changed multiple times before cancellation
Everwild: A Long Road to Nowhere
Everwild was first announced back in November 2019, catching the attention of gamers with its mysterious and beautiful trailer. But from the start, Rare kept things vague. No one really knew what the gameplay would be like, or even what kind of adventure to expect. For years, all we got were hints and pretty visuals. If you missed that first look, check out the original trailer here:
Rare teased us again a year later with another trailer, but still didn’t share any real details about how the game would play. At the time, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said Everwild would be a game where players could “just lose themselves in.” He added, “You know, a lot of nature feels magical. So the notion of, ‘What does it mean to nurture a world? What does it mean to be in nature?’ Part of the reason we haven’t talked a lot about Everwild is because we’re still feeling a lot of these things out. We’re still playing around with gameplay ideas.”
Microsoft Layoffs Hit Rare Hard
The news of Everwild’s cancellation comes as Microsoft is making big cuts across its gaming division. According to Video Games Chronicle, sources inside Rare confirm that the project is now dead. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer addressed the layoffs in a note to employees, shared by Windows Central, saying, “To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.”
Development Woes and a Sudden End
After the initial excitement, Rare went quiet about Everwild. In 2021, reports surfaced that the game was being completely rebooted after its creative director, Simon Woodroffe, left the company. Despite some optimism from Xbox leadership earlier this year, it seems Rare has finally run out of time—and Microsoft out of patience.
As of now, there’s no official comment from Microsoft on what Everwild’s cancellation means for Rare’s future. But one thing’s clear: fans will have to wait for the studio’s next big idea.
