Sea of Thieves director leaves Rare Studios following Xbox layoffs

After weeks of speculation, Microsoft began a new round of mass layoffs yesterday, with many teams across Xbox studios being impacted. We already learned that Rare had been forced to cut staff and cancel Everwild, now, Rare has also lost one of its longest-tenured creative leaders. 

Gregg Mayles, a game director who has worked at Rare for more than 35 years, has left the studio following the cancellation of Everwild, as reported by VGC. This week as part of a mass layoff effort at Microsoft, Rare was forced to let go of an undisclosed number of employees, and their long in-development adventure game, Everwild, had been cancelled.

Previously, Mayles had worked on Nintendo classics like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country, along with many other Rare classics. In more recent years he had worked on Sea of Thieves and Everwild.

Rare has not been the only studio impacted by Microsoft's layoff spree. A Zenimax Online studio in Europe was also shut down and a new MMO, codenamed Project Blackbird, was cancelled. The studio behind Forza Motorsport, Turn 10, had to let go around half of its team. The Initiative, the studio behind the Perfect Dark reboot, was closed down and Perfect Dark was cancelled.

KitGuru Says: We thought last year was rough with the closure of Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks but 2025 has been an even bigger bloodbath. 

Become a Patron!