Xbox made a number of big announcements during their joint presentation with Bethesda on Sunday, but there were a few games that were conspicuously absent. One of those games was Everwild, which was announced back at X019. After that came the setting trailer from the Xbox Games Showcase last summer, but since then it’s been radio silent from both Microsoft and Rare.
Apparently, that’s because Microsoft and Rare have nothing new to show. According to sources speaking to VGC, Everwild has been “completely rebooted.”
After the departure of Everwild’s creative director last October, the game went through “significant changes to its senior leadership” that led to a “complete overhaul of the game’s design and direction.”
We didn’t know much about Everwild’s design to begin with, but the 2020 trailer almost made the game out to be a sort of rhythm game with how it kept mentioning the flow of magic through all living things. The game will certainly retain the same central themes, but whatever Rare had planned has been scrapped.
Everwild executive producer Louise O’Connor told VGC that Gregg Mayles has been brought on as the new creative director. Mayles is the mind behind many of Rare’s biggest hits, such as Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country, Viva Pinata, and Sea of Thieves, and since his arrival, the team has “been making progress on all aspects of Everwild.”
That said, it’ll be a while before we see Everwild again. Rare is now reportedly targeting a 2024 release wind.
This means we can cross Everwild off the list of games Xbox might reveal at the second Xbox Games Showcase to arrive in less than a week. This Thursday will bring Xbox Games Showcase: Extended, according to host Parris Lilly, and will include “conversations with developers from studios like Double Fine, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Rare, and dev partners from around the world!”
Although Everwild is clearly off the table, Rare could still surprise us with some new Perfect Dark footage. Fingers crossed.
