Rare's next game, Everwild, has been in a sort of limbo for a long time. Originally announced in late 2019 during the X019 event, it immediately captivated fans for its gorgeous visuals (vaguely reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) and for its basic idea of 'allowing for new ways to play in a magical world.' In the debut trailer, characters seemed to befriend various animals rather than hunt them as usual in games.
It all sounded a bit vague, though, and there was a good reason for that. In July 2020, Rare studio head Craig Duncan admitted that the Everwild team was still very much brainstorming ideas on what the gameplay would be.
I think with Everwild, Louise O’Connor and her leadership team are really passionate about giving players a world that they can just lose themselves in — you know, a lot of nature feels magical. So the notion of, ‘What does it mean to nurture a world? What does it mean to be in nature?’ Part of the reason we haven’t talked a lot about Everwild is because we’re still feeling a lot of these things out. We’re still playing around with gameplay ideas.
The following year, the situation started sounding less and less optimistic. According to a reliable report from VGC, Rare had restarted development from scratch, and there were also a few key changes in the team's composition, with Sea of Thieves Director Gregg Mayles joining as the new Creative Director. The rumor said the studio was 'optimistically' targeting 2024, which obviously didn't pan out. Indeed, in late 2021, two more insiders chimed in to say Everwild was 'a real mess', with the studio reportedly still unsure what to do with it.
After nearly three years, Windows Central's Jez Corden, who's usually very well-informed on all things Xbox, has provided a brief update during yesterday's episode of the Xbox Two podcast.
I heard that development on Everwild is going well. They've nailed the gameplay loop now and we should be seeing that in the future.
Of course, there's no telling when that might be. The Game Awards is coming up in two months, though if it doesn't make it there, Microsoft could always decide to show it on their Xbox Developer Direct in January 2025. Then again, the January event has been so far dedicated to showing off games that are close to launch, and we have no indication that's the case with Everwild. As such, next Summer's Xbox Games Showcase might be a better fit.
Meanwhile, Rare continues to update Sea of Thieves for the many pirates still enjoying it.
