Few developments are more indicative of a project’s rockiness than a game of musical chairs at the top. Exhibit A: Everwild, which VGC reports is now spearheaded by a new creative lead. What’s more, citing anonymous sources, VGC says that the game has been pushed back a bit, and is now targeting a 2024 release date.
Everwild was first announced during a 2019 Xbox event by way of a very pretty trailer that said exactly nothing about the game, outside of the fact that it was published by Xbox Game Studios and developed by Rare, the storied studio behind Sea of Thieves and Perfect Dark. Everwild popped up again in a July 2020 showcase. Still pretty. Still vague, though there was some confusion around whether or not it would come to Xbox as well as the next-gen consoles. (At the moment, it appears to be a “nope, next-gen only.”) In October, mere weeks before Microsoft released the Xbox Series X and S, Everwild creative director Simon Woodroffe departed the project.
That role has since been filled by Rare veteran Gregg Mayles, who’s been with the studio since 1989 and has credits on everything from Banjo-Kazooie to Donkey Country to Sea of Thieves. Rare’s Louise O’Connor, executive producer on Everwild, confirmed the news to VGC in a statement:
The team behind Everwild continue to shape a truly magical experience and remain focused and excited about creating a new game centred around a truly unique, new world. … Gregg Mayles joined us late last year as Creative Director, and the team has never been stronger. Since showing the world our Eternals trailer, we have been making progress on all aspects of Everwild. The team continues to work hard to realise our vision and to bring the magic of nature in Everwild to life for players around the world.
Kotaku reached out to studio representatives but did not immediately hear back.
It is still unclear what the heck Everwild even is. Those early trailers suggest an open-world action-adventure game—one that certainly sports some eye-popping visuals and moving music—but few hard details are known beyond that. According to VGC’s sources, development on the game has languished for some time, lacking steady creative direction beyond the aesthetics. Following Mayles’ appointment, development on Everwild has apparently been restarted from scratch. VGC’s sources say the studio has an internal target of 2024.
Hey, when it does come out, at least it’ll do so on Game Pass.