News about Veteran Banjo-Kazooie, Sea of Thieves Director Gregg Mayles Reportedly Leaving Rare After Everwild Cancellation

Veteran Banjo-Kazooie, Sea of Thieves Director Gregg Mayles Reportedly Leaving Rare After Everwild Cancellation

Gregg Mayles, the seasoned Rare designer and director, is said to be leaving the studio after yesterday’s widespread layoffs at Xbox, which included the long-in-development title Everwild.

Mayles’ exit, as reported by VGC, marks the end of a prolific 35-year career at Rare—spanning from its early days creating games like Battletoads for NES to its N64 golden era, during which he helped craft iconic characters such as Diddy Kong.

Best known as the director of the N64 classic Banjo-Kazooie, Mayles most recently served as creative director on the hit pirate adventure Sea of Thieves. Over the past four years, however, he has been leading the development of Everwild, Rare’s long-gestating fantasy sequel, which will now never be released.

Everwild’s cancellation, now officially confirmed by Microsoft, comes six years after its initial public unveiling and roughly a decade of total development work by Rare. Louise O’Connor, who served as the game’s producer, is also reportedly departing the studio after more than twenty years.

IGN has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

The final Everwild trailer, released in July 2020, carried this description: "Everwild is a brand new IP from Rare. A unique and unforgettable experience awaits in a natural and magical world." Earlier this year in February, Xbox head Phil Spencer mentioned visiting the studio to review the game’s progress. "It’s nice to see the team with Everwild and the progress that they’re making," Spencer said at the time.

Gregg Mayles is reportedly leaving Rare. Image credit: YouTube. But yesterday afternoon, Xbox officially confirmed Everwild’s cancellation in a company-wide email from Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty. The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot has also been canceled, along with other unannounced projects, including a new MMO from The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios.

"We have made the decision to stop development of Perfect Dark and Everwild as well as wind down several unannounced projects across our portfolio," Booty wrote.

"As part of this, we are closing one of our studios, The Initiative. These decisions, along with other changes across our teams, reflect a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape.

"We did not make these choices lightly, as each project and team represent years of effort, imagination, and commitment."