According to reports from VGC and Bloomberg, Rare‘s 2019-announced game Everwild has been cancelled following mass layoffs at Microsoft Gaming. According to VGC’s sources which are developers who worked on the game, Everwild has been in development for over ten years and was even rebooted internally. In the game, players would have played as an Eternal who explores and build bonds with the world around them.
The game’s details via Rare studio head Craig Duncan released at the game’s announcement:
While Everwild is still early in development, we are very excited about the unique potential of the game we are creating. The Everwild team is focused on building an experience that allows for new ways to play in a natural and magical world. The development team, led by Executive Producer Louise O’Connor, is creating something truly original and incredibly special that aims to be more than just a new IP. Everwild will give you memorable, engaging and meaningful experiences for players everywhere to share. We cannot wait to share more with you in the future.
Having two large games in development represents a tremendous opportunity for Rare and the talented staff here as we grow and further evolve the studio to meet the challenges of simultaneously operating a successful live service and being in pre-production for a new IP. While Everwild and the team building it will get everything they need, we are still fully committed to Sea of Thieves—Joe, Mike, Shelley and the team still have plenty of creative ideas and plans to bring to Sea of Thieves for a long time to come and we have a number of central teams that support both games.
