Everwild’s Creative Director Resigns From Rare | Screen Rant
In a surprise development, Rare's creative director Simon Woodroffe has resigned from the Microsoft-owned studio Rare. The industry veteran, who previously worked as the Head of Game Design at SEGA for over 10 years, had been working as the lead developer on the next-gen title Everwild prior to his resignation. At the time of publication, no reason has been given by either Rare or Woodroffe for the departure.
Understandably, Woodroffe's sudden exit has raised pressing questions about the future of Everwild, the upcoming next-gen title for Xbox and Windows. Everwild is described by Rare as a "magical new IP ... where unique and unforgettable experiences await in a natural and magical world," and was teased at the Xbox Games Showcase in July this year. The initial teaser trailer for the game was hauntingly abstract. Indeed, it was, at the time, accurately described in these pages as "beautiful but confusing", so the exact nature of this title has been shrouded in mystery for a while. In September, however, Rare released a longer video featuring developer commentary that shed a bit more light on what gamers could expect from Everwild. Of course, with this latest development, Rare's first next-gen offering will once more be shrouded in mystery — albeit of a different, arguably less marketable, kind.
Video game news website VGC broke the story of Woodroffe's unusual departure in recent days. However, it is understood Woodroffe signalled his intention to leave Rare's management earlier in October. It is also understood Woodroffe was then absent from the studio "for some time" immediately after handing in his resignation. It seems the future of Everwild is now largely in the hands of executive producer Louise O'Connor, whose pedigree includes working as an animator on the delightfully lewd, crude and rude Conker's Bad Fur Day.
Rare, of course, has a long and storied history in video games but has struggled to recapture the magic of its smash-hit titles of the 1990s since it was acquired by Microsoft Game Studios in 2002. The more recent Sea of Thieves certainly has its fans, but the overall reception has been fairly lukewarm. Rare still has time on its side though, as Everwild does not yet have a confirmed release date. As studio head Craig Duncan explained in a statement supplied to VGC, Rare is confident in the direction of Everwild under its new leadership.
O'Connor's team is still experimenting with the title's core gameplay mechanics. However, if Rare has any hope of reclaiming past glory — of capturing the minds of a generation of gamers as it did with the likes of GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie — the studio needs to come out of the gate strong for the Xbox Series X era. And that means nailing Everwild regardless of who's in charge.
Source: VGC