Rare Acknowledges Everwild’s Cancellation, Sea Of Thieves Currently Unaffected

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As part of today’s Sea of Thieves Developer Update, Production Director Drew Stevens began the video by acknowledging the recent cancellation of Everwild, one of many casualties of the sweeping layoffs that were implemented across Microsoft and Xbox on July 2nd, 2025.

“I think it would be strange to try and jump straight into our usual updates”, began Drew, “without acknowledging the news that we’ve ended development on Everwild here at Rare.”

Rare had yet to make a statement regarding the situation with Everwild or the MS and Xbox layoffs until today, with Matt Booty, Head of Xbox Games Studios, confirming the game’s cancellation. They even held their first Community Direct last week, looking back over the last year and on the future of Sea of Thieves. Throughout the 50-minute live stream, there was no mention of Everwild’s cancellation or the layoffs, despite taking place a week prior. While the live stream may not have been the right place to talk about such things, it no doubt had fans wondering if and when they would comment on the situation.

“While this didn’t directly impact Sea of Thieves, and we’re continuing on as we planned, our focus as a team and a studio is on supporting our friends and colleagues whose roles are at risk.”

Everwild had reportedly been in development for nearly a decade, and would see the legendary Gregg Mayles become Creative Director of the project when it was rebooted back in 2021. Now, the team at Rare is doing what they can to take care of those affected at their studio. Mayles, who had been an integral part of Rare for 35 years, creating titles like Banjo-Kazooie and Viva PiÃ±ata, left the studio shortly after the layoffs.

“It’s impossible for something like this not to ripple through the studio and affect us all in some way or another. So, please bear with us. And on that, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who’s reached out to check in on us and share their kind words of support. Genuinely, thank you. It means a lot.”

You can watch the full Sea of Thieves Developer Update from today here.

How do you think the cancellation of Everwild may affect Rare? Do you think they will begin developing another project or focus on Sea of Thieves? Let us know in the comments below.