As you’re probably well aware at this point, there were a whole bunch of Xbox layoffs earlier this month across multiple studios and divisions, and Rare’s Everwild project was cancelled entirely as part of the cuts.
Everyone’s been remaining pretty quiet about this at Microsoft and Xbox, despite an internal memo confirming that the game had officially been cancelled, but now the studio behind it (Rare) has issued a formal video message.
The message comes at the start of the latest Sea of Thieves developer update, as seen above.
“Hi everyone. I think it would be strange to jump straight into our usual updates without acknowledging the news that we’ve ended development on Everwild here at Rare. While this didn’t directly impact Sea of Thieves, and we’re continuing on as we’d planned, our focus as a team and a studio is on supporting our friends and colleagues whose roles are at risk.
It’s impossible for something like this not to ripple through the studio and affect us all in some way or another, so please bear with us. And on that, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who’s reached out to check in on us and share their kind words of support. Genuinely, thank you, it really means a lot.”
We’re sure we’ll learn more about Everwild’s troubled development at some point in the future, but for now there are a lot of questions about what happened to it. The first trailer was revealed back in 2019, but it went quiet for a couple of years before reports suggested it had been internally rebooted in 2021, and then again it disappeared from public view.
The most recent reports had suggested it was actually in a good place, and we know they were hiring for the project as recently as last year, but it’s evident that Microsoft felt it wasn’t enough. It’s a sad situation for everyone involved, and our best wishes go out to the team at Rare.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.
Rare Comments On Everwild Cancellation For First Time Since Xbox Layoffs
“It’s impossible for something like this not to ripple through the studio”
As you’re probably well aware at this point, there were a whole bunch of Xbox layoffs earlier this month across multiple studios and divisions, and Rare’s Everwild project was cancelled entirely as part of the cuts.
Everyone’s been remaining pretty quiet about this at Microsoft and Xbox, despite an internal memo confirming that the game had officially been cancelled, but now the studio behind it (Rare) has issued a formal video message.
The message comes at the start of the latest Sea of Thieves developer update, as seen above.
We’re sure we’ll learn more about Everwild’s troubled development at some point in the future, but for now there are a lot of questions about what happened to it. The first trailer was revealed back in 2019, but it went quiet for a couple of years before reports suggested it had been internally rebooted in 2021, and then again it disappeared from public view.
The most recent reports had suggested it was actually in a good place, and we know they were hiring for the project as recently as last year, but it’s evident that Microsoft felt it wasn’t enough. It’s a sad situation for everyone involved, and our best wishes go out to the team at Rare.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.