Xbox's Everwild Gets Cancelled As Layoffs Hit Sea Of Thieves Developer

Six weeks ago they were reportedly happy with the progress of the game.

Now it seems it may well be gone.

Can MS just sell the name and the IP to Nintendo and let them carry on with it?

MS can give Sea of thieves to someone else to keep it ticking over.

They had two choices, to bully teams and allow crunch culture like Sony and Naughty Dog or let the teams do whatever they want until finally losing patience and numbers stop making sense. I think that something in between would be ideal. in the meantime, awesome IPs that would complement Xbox portfolio are abandoned, and other Xbox studios seem to do perfectly fine and even help others.

What a fascinating mess Xboxs executive team is, except for Phil Spencer's " charm" what in the hell have they actually accomplished....... except for closing studios and yearly mass layoffs....

Said it several times before - Rare have dragged their heels for far too long. There's no way Everwild, given it's massive length in development, was ever going to break profit, even if it sold exceptionally well.

Not too shocking as there had been little news from Rare on Everwild… RIP

Sorry, but it's time. Microsoft needs to take drastic action to right the ship so to speak. These games that seemingly have endless development cycles are a big part of the problem.

Darn. It was probably a live service game, but I was still curious about this one

So… Rare is now doomed to just toil away in the Sea of Thieves live service mines for all eternity? This is sad. Incredibly sad.

@Tyrant_T103 Exactly. I mean, it's (Everwild) reportedly been a "thing" since 2014, before being announced in 2019, six years ago, and then a year or two later there were internal reports leaked that no-one in-house even knew what it was... it's just been a big mess.

I don't condone layoffs or job cuts, but studios cost hundreds of millions to run (rent, equipment, licenses, actors, talent, and more). Even if Everwild released today there's no way it was making back the money it's cost to run the team (within Rare) that were working on it.

Folks don't like to hear that, but it is what it is. I love Rare, and have loved lots of their games for a long time of my life, but as you say, endless development cycles from a few studios under the MS umbrella need sorting out (Everwild, PD, etc...)

I suspect they will retain the SoT team for a couple of years, and then sunset the game and the studio. I cant see them shutting the game down so soon after cross plat launch.

Teams like Obsidian, that throw varied games out consistently should be 1000% safe.

@Kaloudz I could kind of see your point if MS acquired Rare halfway through Everwild development but they have owned them since 2002! I feel a reasonable portion of the blame should be on Xbox/MS for mismanaging their studio. I know we don’t know exactly who has been cut but I’m willing to bet it’s the people who are on the receiving end of bad decisions rather than those making the decisions.

Rare must be one of the most mismanaged companies in gaming history. All that amazing IP and yet all they've managed to release in a decade is Sea of Thieves.

Microsoft should give management of Rare back to Nintendo.They've never known what to do with them.

@GeeEssEff Don't get me wrong, I absolutely agree with what you've said - but MS have a long history of "let's let these studios do what they want and give them complete freedom with a blank cheque". That right there, is MS' fault.

MS should have stepped in years ago when there were reports that not even Rare knew what Everwild was and told them to get their house in order. But, on the other side of the coin, Rare have just dragged on for far, far too long with this that I feel - despite MS not applying some pressure (or more of it) Rare's days were numbered.

I wholly believe if SoT hadn't done as well as it did, Rare would have gone out with the last layoffs.

"Windows Central is currently investigating reports that Perfect Dark and ZeniMax Online Studios' new online IP have also been cancelled."

@fbnaulin PD would surprise me more than Rare, as PD seemed to be coming along well the last we saw it, but we never truly know what goes on behind closed doors, eh? It could have looked nice to us, but been years and years off - making for another overly lengthy dev cycle.

No game, no hype. We've never seen gameplay at all for all six years since it's reveal. That and the multiple reboots, not a loss at all for me.

Xbox has a number of games that seem to have endless dev cycles. Some accountability needs to be had with some dev times of 8+ years

@Kaloudz Yeah, PD seemed to be "almost there", IIRC they even showed it on one showcase not too long ago.

@Medic_alert what value does the name and ip hold? What's the incentive for anyone to buy the rights to that? I would argue that calling a game everwild, scalebound, etc at this point would negatively impact its future. Nintendo would be better off with something original or it's wide array of existing ip.

@fbnaulin @HarmanSmith Perfect Dark 3 looked great the last time they showed it, but I know it was thanks to Crystal Dynamics, which is telling. Maybe they should have acquire that studio when Square Enix got rid of it. The Initiative was created in 2018, rebooted the project several times and it wasn't until Crystal Dynamics arrived that the game had something to show.

@BacklogBrad there are lots of good IP under Rare. Being able to reinvigorate some of those into new games could be a big win particularly as Nintendo trades on nostalgia very well.

There is definitely a place for a new Banjo game for instance.

GaaS is killing gaming. Stop paying $20 for a character skin people!!!

@Banjo- Yeah, now that you mention it, CD are great devs - loved their Tomb Raider games.

@Rob3008 you should read Press Reset if you want a good overview of studio management and crazy doings. The bar is set pretty high by 38 Studios and others, but maybe Rare could be in the discussion

@Medic_alert oh you mean sell Rare and their legacy titles. It sounded like sell them rights to everwild specifically.

I think Rare is doing well as their live service machine. Sea of thieves is easily the most successful thing they have ever done.

The most surprising thing is that xbox gave them so much time to try to work this one out. It shows how much confidence a game like sea of thieves will get a studio from the execs.

@BacklogBrad oh no, stick Everwild, it has been doomed for ages.

I just want all those dormant IP in the hands of someone who has an ounce of creativity.

This is wild news if true.

...and this is why the FTC fought so hard to stop the Xbox and ABK merger. MS is going to continue to cut these jobs on a rolling basis until these studios are a shell of their former selves.

I don't think Phil Spencer really runs Xbox anymore, I think one of the things that triggered the Activision acquisition is that Xbox stopped being a small business and became one of the main columns of Microsoft.

Now Nadella, the execs and the shareholder board are getting their paws into Xbox, and Phil is just another employee who has to please his board bosses.

still just a rumor but considering the game was showed like 6 years ago and we still know nothing about it, can't say i'm too bothered if this ends up being true. Bring back Scalebound Phil

@fbnaulin This would be messed up, this and the next Forza Horizon game are the only two Microsoft games I’m really looking forward to.

It was always vaporware

Disappointing?
Yes.
Never really found out what sort of game this was going to be!?

@Banjo- judging by your name and profile pic I assume you wanted what I wanted - a rare that makes awesome single player games! Sea of Thieves just ruined them as a dev

@HarmanSmith Exactly. Which is why it will surprise me. But then again, you just never know. It could have been years off and been made to just look good. We never know :/

The only good thing about a layoff, is that it will laser focus everyone that stays. Obsidian are MS' perfect example of a studio IMO. They have some great studios but there's a few (Rare, T10, and a few others) that need some fat trimming, as harsh as that sounds.

@fbnaulin that would be a massive shame if perfect dark is cancelled too. I thought it looked really promising from what we saw last…

Damn one of the top five reasons I bought a series X was because of this game. Loved Rare since Battletoads. Was hoping for a Viva Piñata/ Sea of Thieves game. Sucks to kill an entire project that’s been worked on for so long. Can’t comprehend how that feels.

@Halucigens @Coletrain I only find Sea of Thieves enjoyable with friends. It's a sin that there is no more Banjo-Kazooie, not even remakes, nor Viva Piñata, one of the most wonderful games I've ever played on any platform. There are more Rare IPs that I think have a lot of potential because they are a lot of fun and need some updates, like Jet Force Gemini, that I had a hard time with in the beginning, but then really enjoyed it.

Moreover, this kind of games is the only thing that Xbox is missing and it's been a while. We all love our Forza, Doom, Halo or Gears, along the recent and excellent single-player additions like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but something is missing when the other side of Microsoft, the creative and not so serious side and the very thing that started Xbox backwards compatibility in 2015, is missing.

@Halucigens MS will still retain the IPs, so there's every chance another studio will take a poke even if Rare closes completely.

@Banjo- 100%. Look how well astro bot did, great platformers will always endear themselves to gamers

@Kaloudz you mention the remaining Devs will have laser focus as a result of these layoffs but I don't believe that to be the case.
Rare was mismanaged and got layoffs (somewhat understandable)
Turn 10 makes a popular tent pole title for Xbox and got
layoffs.
Tango gameworks makes a creative critically acclaimed AA and gets shut down.
Success doesn't seem to be much of a factor as to whether you face the chopping block at Xbox.
This suggests to me the remaining Devs will be either anxious or complacent about their employment, neither of which are conducive to creativity or productivity.
Just offering an alternative point of view.

Man, it's going to be awhile till we see anything out of Rare outside of Sea of Thieves updates.

Wonder if they'll force a new Banjo out of the studio.

Well this sucks!! But I am more surprised by the Perfect Dark announcement 😔

@Trmn8r I’m guilty of buying 8.99 pumas on rematch. I kind of don’t think it’s the death of gaming. As a matter of fact if every major studio had a sub game or gaas it could help finance future games. FF14 is an example

@Llamageddon MS has a long history of being hands off, so the mismanagement comes down to the individual studios in a lot of cases. Rare dragged Everwild on for so long it made Duke Nukem Forever look like it was made in a year.

Turn 10 is a great dev, but they've dropped the ball one too many times IMO and given how expensive they would have been to run (car licenses and such, tech, etc...) they'd have needed some heavy hitters to stay afloat. It's not like MS can cross release FM when GT already exists on PS.

Tango I agree with. That was just such a dumb move.

Studios like Obsidian - which deliver consistent and varied games on a religious basis, are going to be much safer than the rest. I wouldn't be surprised to see Halo Studios get a small trim too. I think (I may be wrong) Playground are relatively safe given they likely have another FH game nearing end of dev and Fable for 2026, and depending how far alone SoD3 is, they may be safe too.

There really wasn't much shown, so...meh?

@NintendoByNature rare time I laughed at a joke on this site.

@Kaloudz I largely agree with what you're saying but the main point I was making is that the remaining workers aren't going to be buckling down or 'laser focused'.
It will be more of a damned if we do, damned if we don't mentality.
I am basing this off my experience of working for companies that 'restructured'. My colleagues and I certainly weren't buoyed by this and the negativity it bred actually led to it impacting the quality of the work being done.
Like I said though, this is just my point of view based on my experience. I am more than happy to be wrong and I hope it doesn't affect the devs this way because it's a mentally exhausting position to be in.

@Llamageddon Oh no, sorry, that's my bad for not being crystal clear. I didn't mean like, the remaining workers at any of the effected studios, but more so the people working the unaffected studios.

For instance, I would have assumed that Rare would have got their crap in line for Everwild during the last round of layoffs, but here we are, so much time later, and I bet they didn't make much progress since then, hence the slap they've felt. If that makes sense?

Unlike other Rare titles, this project lacked even a basic concept or idea, so its cancellation may have been for the best. Modern Rare seems limited to Sea of Thieves, as they haven’t produced anything else in recent years. This suggests they may only excel in one genre now. It’s a stark contrast to the old Rare, WHICH thrived across diverse genres like 2D and 3D platformers, action-adventure, kart racing, party games, and beat ’em ups. In today’s competitive industry, relying on a single genre may not be enough to sustain success.

Another ip and how many show Phil was saying it be a amazing game for the Xbox family it’s time for people to start kicking off on Xbox and phil

@Kaloudz that does clear it up, yes.

Every workspace and team are different so I guess we'll see who did/didn't pull their socks up when the inevitable next round of layoffs happen (hopefully not too soon)

@Llamageddon Fingers crossed. Rule of thumb is that (I imagine) MS wont be shutting studios that make more than they cost. They'll only be shutting those that cost more than they make. Otherwise, it makes zero sense.

Oh no I was hoping for another cartoony borefest from MS. That's a shane at least we are getting lots of AAA adult focused games with cutting edge graphics, oh wait we are not getting that either hang on a minute what F are they doing over there

@Leuke you are absolutely spot on. How can you sit on such great IP and do nothing with it for so long? Feels like Microsoft bought Rare just to flex their muscles when they started Xbox and have never really cared about them making great games.

@CadErik Me too. I mean, I really think if they'd have set aside a small team to work on a Toys-for-Bob style remaster of Banjo 1 + 2, as well as perhaps a remake of Grabbed by the Ghoulies or something else that would have been classed as a small low-risk project, they'd have been comfortable.

@Titntin not sure leaderships told Turn 10 to make a bland Forza Motorsport that didn’t sell nor grab much attention on Gamepass. Rare has been screwing around with Everwild since the start of this gen and can’t show anything. This is the entertainment business and if you aren’t entertaining you lose your job. If you are a pro sports athlete and don’t perform to your contract you are cut. You have some of the best tools, software, and money at MS there is little reason to not be able to show a game in years. I ain’t saying i don’t feel bad, but big salaries come with big responsibilities. Some are not cutting it. You’ve been in this business long enough to know not every employee has what it takes. To your point not every manager or supervisor has it either.

Unless they do well enough with Sea of Thieves to give more staff a chance or fit in another tiny project sure.

But otherwise they kept dragging their feet not knowing what to do with it, so good riddance. Live service or not. Better direction/money/time to be spent, they didn't do it, it's on them.

@NintendoByNature Everwild news lol I see where you were going

wow some people will defend anything MS does haha

I was reminded that a few months ago Phil was saying this:
https://www.eurogamer.net/yes-rares-everwild-is-still-in-development-and-xbox-is-committed-to-giving-the-team-the-time-it-needs

Awkward! 😬

And Jez Corden also got this spectacularly wrong: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/05/microsoft-has-strong-confidence-in-rares-everwild-says-xbox-reporter

@Cakefish well they had plenty of time to do something about it, and they pissed it away. Either that or MS had most of them working on SOT content. Let's face it though it's just more jaw dropping terrible management of talent by Phil and the gang

It's disheartening to see a project that has been worked on for so long get cancelled, but I'm not surprised. After all these years, I still don't think we knew what Everwild was going to be.

And Perfect Dark looked fugazi to me. It looked fake, and I didn't vibe with whatever they were trying to communicate with it.

@Banjo- reportedly most game devs have crunch seasons/culture but if you crunch in studio like naughty dog which is a elite tier studio like Rockstar, CD project then you have impressive resume after.
Or better not have crunches and then cancel the project and fire everyone?
Its just mismanagement from MS or leaders of those teams.
In most of corporate world there is some degree of OT/crunch so I would not use it as argument.

@Kaloudz "That right there, is MS' fault." - Exactly so stop siding with a trillion dollar corporation dude. I also love xbox but this is inexcusable. As a fan you should be the bigger critic, but seems like you defend their every move.
We have pushsquare folks that push the narrative, but being as blind on the opposite side is not better imo

@Grackler I really like my xbox series X. I truly believe if you leave all the corporate MS BS out of the scope - its great piece of hardware and better than ps5 for me personally.
This gen this is my main platform. I am pretty sure in 10 years, people will remember seris s/x as a solid gen lol with having still exclusives and classic console logic.
But unless magically xbox-PC is a super killer thing, I dont see any point to deal with anything xbox unless you are deeply into GP. Which again it takes 1-2 price hikes so people start question it.

I dont understand why killing xbox consoles, 25yr old brand and transitioning in the most lazy way to publisher by buying half industry and getting read of exclusives (that hurts their own platform) - should be considered a W just because they now make more money. Would be weird if such moves would not generate the money, but they are and will loose the gaming platform/ecosystem to Valve and PS. PS will eat xbox, Valve wont eat windows obviously but windows will be used as a steam launcher if you are into gaming.

@Millionski C'mon, you cant take a snippet of my post without any context and run with it.

Exactly so stop siding with a trillion dollar corporation dude.

Why do a select few on the site here take such issue with how I post / think? I'm not jumping on a hate-train for the simple sake of pleasing a small crowd. That's absurd.

I stand by everything I have posted. Sorry...

AND KILLER instinct(one of the best fighting games I have ever played in my life) @Rob3008

@Millionski It looks like you replied before reading properly. Again. Always picking up a few words and twisting the whole meaning...

You are free to use your own arguments, in between, and I can use my own. No need for mutual approval.

Have a good day/evening/night.