Rare's mysterious nature sim Everwild has been cancelled as part of Xbox mass layoffs, according to reports

Update: Microsoft confirm reports

Update: Microsoft's Matt Booty has confirmed that Everwild has been cancelled along with The Initiative's Perfect Dark reboot and several unannounced games.

Original story follows:

Microsoft have cancelled Rare's wistful bucolic ramble Everwild as part of wider layoffs at the company this month, according to a report. Microsoft themselves have yet to comment, but the news wouldn't be unexpected given that Everwild has been in development for around a decade, including its prototype phase, yet remains something of a mystery.

The story comes from VGC, who cite "people with knowledge of the project". The same sources claim that team members are likely to lose their jobs in the process.

Everwild was revealed back in 2019 as a verdant fantasy experience that seeks "new ways to play in a natural and magical world". It cast you as an "eternal" being communing with plants and animals by means of staff-wielding rites, and seemed devoid of video game staples like combat and progression.

Over the years we've been treated to more trailers and concept art, but Rare have never quite explained what players do in the game, possibly because they hadn't worked it out themselves. The developers "restarted the project from scratch" in 2021, according to rumours, following the departure of creative director Simon Woodroffe.

I myself liked the peacenik green-living stylings of Everwild's announcement trailer, and was intrigued rather than confused by Rare's elusiveness about tasks, goals and mechanics. Xbox boss wizard Phil Spencer was similarly positive when he talked about the game earlier this year, commenting "we've been able to give those teams time in what they're doing which is good and still have a portfolio like we have."

At the same time, Everwild has always felt like a hard sell within Microsoft, even given the relative success of the comparably playful and bloodshed-averse Sea of Thieves. Microsoft do not historically go in for this kind of hippy fairytale, to put it mildly. And when a game is in the works (in some form) for 10 years and still doesn't have a release date, a happy ending seems unlikely.

I'll mail Microsoft for comment. If you're employed at Rare, best of luck navigating all this.