I already suspected the worst given that it's been over five years since the Everwild announcement trailer dropped, but it seems it's now official. The game has apparently fallen victim to Microsoft's cuts at Xbox and won't make it to release.
Revealed back in 2019, the open-world adventure looked mysterious and enigmatic. With beautiful art style reminiscent of Princess Mononoke and a wholesome-looking theme, I had hopes this would be a return to form for Rare. Alas, it seems we will never know what could have been.
But this week's news feels like more than the cancellation of individual games. It feels almost like its Xbox itself that's being cancelled: or at least the console as we knew it.
According to Video Games Chronicle, studio sources have confirmed the cancellation of Everwild, a title first revealed in November 2019 as Rare's next game after 2018's Sea of Thieves.
A second trailer in 2020 provided no more idea of the game's mechanics, but looked just as lush as the first. Xbox Game Studios' Matt Booty told Polygon at the time it would be a game players “can just lose themselves in.”
There's been next to no news since then, although Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer did talk about the title with some excitement earlier in the year. But this week, he reportedly confirmed to employees that Microsoft's plans for 9,000 job cuts will hit the Xbox division.
In an internal note cited by Windows Central, Phil said: “To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness."
Some people say the decision about Everwild makes sense, suggesting that two trailers wasn't enough to show for six years of work (or more since it seems the concept was developed back in 2011). "Maybe I’m super cynical but Everwild looks like the exact kinda game companies show off at an expo and then never release. This game was never coming out," one person wrote on X.
But Everwild is just one of a bunch of games falling victim to Xbox's cuts. The Perfect Dark reboot has been cancelled and its maker, The Initiative, is being shut down. The next MMORPG from Zenimax Online Studios is also out, the studio has confirmed, and there are reportedly layoffs at Turn10 and Raven Software.
It's sad to see those job losses and to see some great IPs go to waste in the process, but where does that leave Xbox? Last month, it announced a new handheld, the ROG Asus Ally with Asus, and president Sarah Bond announced a project with AMD to co-engineer silicon for next-generation Xbox consoles.
Talk of cross-device and cross-store compatibility sounded exciting since it seems the next Xbox will support Steam, and we might also see more third-party Xbox devices. But with the closure of so many development projects, it's starting to sound like Xbox will be relying on third-party games, reducing it to a third-party publisher with a console and a subscription service.
