Forty years ago (geez, seems like yesterday, right?), the legendary British video game outfit Rare was born on August 4, 1985. They came out of the ashes—or should I say pixels—of Ultimate Play the Game, a ’82 British game dev and publisher. These folks have painted our childhoods with classics, teaming up with Nintendo and Xbox to give us gems like Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Piñata, and Sea of Thieves.
To mark this epic 40-year run, Rare hooked up with 8BitDo for a snazzy limited-edition wireless Xbox controller. Whoa, nostalgia alert! It’s decked out with patterns and silhouettes from their iconic masterpieces. But, oh man, the timing… talk about awkward, given the recent drama between Xbox and Rare.
Xbox and Rare Drama in the Spotlight
So here’s the juicy bit—since 2023, Microsoft and Xbox have been laying people off left and right. It’s wild. Microsoft let go of 10,000 folks in 2023, then more in ’24, ’25… the list goes on. Even with Xbox saying they’ve got more players than ever. Go figure. They say it’s about ‘agility’—cutting layers of management blah blah. Meanwhile, developers got hit hard, like 70 gone from Turn 10 Studios (those are the Forza guys) and King’s Candy Crush team lost a chunk too. Ouch.
Some games were just axed, like, poof, gone! Zenimax’s Blackbird, the Perfect Dark reboot from The Initiative (which itself went bye-bye) and even Rare’s shiny new toy, Everwild. Perfect Dark was gonna be huge! So yeah, it’s kinda nuts.
Everwild’s Roller Coaster Ride
Everwild’s been in development since 2014. Can you believe it? Yet still, so much is a mystery. Rare talked it up back in 2019 as, um, something about magic and nature… yeah, sounds cool. But the game kept getting shuffled around—like musical chairs but not fun. And then the creative lead bailed in 2021, which threw more wrenches into the works, delaying the supposed 2024 release.
But get this, while all these layoffs were going down, development on Everwild was supposedly on track in 2024. Windows Central’s Jez Corden even said they’d "nailed the gameplay loop," whatever that means. But then Matt Booty (yes, real name) from Xbox Game Studios dropped the bomb on Everwild and Perfect Dark, saying they’re ‘adjusting priorities.’ Huh, sounds like corporate speak for ‘we’re lost.’
Farewell to a Legend
Oh, and Greg Mayles—one of Rare’s biggest names, the guy who helped design, like, Donkey Kong and Banjo-Kazooie—he up and left. Dude was with Rare since he was 18. That’s a lifetime! And he just walked. This whole saga kinda turned Rare’s 40th anniversary into a bittersweet affair.
Alright, some good news to wrap up. In Ashby-de-la-Zouch (yeah, real place), they stuck a plaque up to commemorate Rare’s birthplace. A tiny silver lining for all this chaos.
Anyway—what a whirlwind, huh? Classic gaming memories wrapped up with a bit of turmoil. Life, I guess, keeps it interesting.
