As part of the overall cuts to the Xbox division and layoffs at Microsoft on Wednesday, the company is cancelling the upcoming Everwild from Rare, sources tell Windows Central. Game industry journalist Jason Schreier of Bloomberg also shared that he'd heard tell of the cancelations as well.
Everwild was first announced back in 2019 as a new IP from Rare, a U.K. studio with a long history of working on various projects, including the original Perfect Dark. In recent years, Rare has been known for its work on Sea of Thieves, a hugely-successful multiplayer pirate game.
Windows Central can also report from our sources that Perfect Dark has been canceled as well, with The Initiative studio being closed.
ZeniMax Online Studios' new IP hadn't been formally revealed, but Perfect Dark has had multiple trailers since its announcement, including a gameplay demonstration in the Xbox Games Showcase 2024. The Initiative had been working on the game for many years in partnership with Embracer Groups' Crystal Dynamics of Tomb Raider fame.
ZeniMax's new IP had been in development since 2018 under codename "Blackbird," and before that, "Kestrel," and Windows Central understands it was a fantasy-genre MMORPG to improve upon the success the firm saw in The Elder Scrolls Online. The project had over 200 developers working on it back in 2022.
Our sources suggest it had branching dialogue trees for story delivery, similar to games like Mass Effect or Star Wars: The Old Republic, and was intended to be the title Zenimax Online Studios would move into as The Elder Scrolls Online began to wind down with age.
Windows Central is investigating details on other upcoming Xbox games, but no other already-announced first-party titles seem to be canceled yet. Undead Labs is reportedly being hit with some layoffs (per Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach), but State of Decay 3 remains in development.
We can however hard confirm that Xbox hardware has largely avoided the cuts. Speculation was mounting over the past week that Microsoft will seek to reduce its hardware ambitions, despite recently announcing new Xbox first-party hardware in partnership with AMD. Windows Central understands that this latest layoff round has not impacted Microsoft's next-gen Xbox hardware plans, which include a full successor to the Xbox Series X that could even possibly include Steam support.
The latest round of layoffs brings Microsoft's total to 15,300 for the year, after layoffs in both January and May. This July, Microsoft is laying off 9,000 in various departments and divisions, as it "restructures," according to the firm, reducing global headcount by 4%.
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