Uncommon’s long-in-development recreation Everwild is not any extra, in keeping with a report from Video Video games Chronicle, citing sources on the studio. The enigmatic open-world journey has been canceled, practically six years after it was first revealed and after a decade of some type of improvement on Everwild.
Information of Everwild’s cancellation arrives amid extra layoffs at Microsoft; the corporate is reportedly slashing practically 9,000 jobs as a part of new cuts at Microsoft. On Wednesday, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stated in a word to workers, printed by Home windows Central, that the Xbox division is being impacted: “To place Gaming for enduring success and permit us to deal with strategic progress areas, we are going to finish or lower work in sure areas of the enterprise and comply with Microsoft’s lead in eradicating layers of administration to extend agility and effectiveness,” Spencer stated.
Uncommon first unveiled Everwild in November 2019, however outdoors of a lush trailer, didn’t say a lot about how the follow-up to Sea of Thieves would play or what its scope was.
The next 12 months, Uncommon confirmed off one other trailer for Everwild, however once more provided little element about its mechanics or play model. On the time, head of Xbox Sport Studios Matt Booty stated that Everwild would give gamers “they’ll simply lose themselves in.”
“, a number of nature feels magical. So the notion of, ‘What does it imply to nurture a world? What does it imply to be in nature?’” Booty instructed gamexplore. “A part of the explanation we haven’t talked so much about Everwild is as a result of we’re nonetheless feeling a number of these items out. We’re nonetheless enjoying round with gameplay concepts.”
Uncommon went darkish on Everwild within the following years, and the sport was reportedly rebooted in 2021. VGC reported on the time that Uncommon had undertaken “a whole overhaul of the sport’s design and course” following the departure of its earlier inventive director, Simon Woodroffe.
Earlier this 12 months, Spencer stated in a podcast interview that Xbox Sport Studios had the luxurious of affording groups like Uncommon to get tasks like Everwild proper, due to Xbox’s robust publishing slate. However it seems that Microsoft has run out of persistence and that Uncommon has run out of time, at the very least with regards to Everwild.
gamexplore has reached out to Microsoft for touch upon Everwild’s cancellation and what it means for Uncommon, and can replace when the corporate responds.