Rare’s long-mysterious Everwild has finally been seen in something resembling playable form — a set of leaked in-development screenshots surfaced this week showing UI and inventory screens from a build reportedly close to the project’s cancellation, and they re-open a conversation about what went wrong, what Rare nearly shipped, and what canceled games leave behind.
Everwild was unveiled during Xbox’s XO19 showcase as Rare’s next major original IP, promising a vibrant, nature-centered world where players — referred to as “Eternals” in official materials — would interact with flora and fauna in whimsical, non-violent ways. Public-facing footage from 2019 and 2020 emphasized atmosphere, creature design, and a tone that felt closer to Viva Piñata or Kena: Bridge of Spirits than to standard action franchises. But details beyond that concept-level material were scarce for years.
Internal turbulence and long development cycles are visible in Everwild’s timeline. The project appears to have begun at Rare mid‑decade, went through public teases in 2019–2020, and then entered a prolonged period of redesign and internal reassessment. Creative leadership changed: Simon Woodroffe departed in 2020, and veteran Rare designer Gregg Mayles is reported to have taken charge during a 2021 reboot of the project — moves that were widely covered and later confirmed in contemporary reporting.
Microsoft’s broader restructuring and Xbox’s staffing cuts in mid‑2025 changed the calculus for several first‑party projects. As part of company‑wide layoffs, Microsoft cancelled multiple internal projects — among them Everwild — in a round that affected thousands of positions and closed or pared back several studios. Reporting from multiple outlets places the cancellation in that July 2025 wave.
For Rare fans the images are both tantalizing and tragic: proof of something beautiful that never reached players. For the industry they’re a case study in how modern game development’s cost structure forces even beloved studios into hard choices. And for Microsoft, Everwild’s cancellation — and the images that followed — will be part of the broader reckoning about how the company balances creative risk with fiscal accountability.
The screenshots don’t tell the whole story, and many core claims about internal decision‑making and final design remain known only to those who worked on Everwild. But they do confirm that Rare built tangible systems and UI around an ecology of figments, seeds, and mosaics — tools that, had the game finished, might have produced a rare, gentle alternative to mainstream AAA design. Whether Everwild’s DNA lives on in future Rare projects or as inspiration for other studios, these leaked fragments ensure its ideas won’t be forgotten.
Source: Windows Central Everwild Screenshots Reveals Rare’s Cancelled Xbox Game
Background
Everwild was unveiled during Xbox’s XO19 showcase as Rare’s next major original IP, promising a vibrant, nature-centered world where players — referred to as “Eternals” in official materials — would interact with flora and fauna in whimsical, non-violent ways. Public-facing footage from 2019 and 2020 emphasized atmosphere, creature design, and a tone that felt closer to Viva Piñata or Kena: Bridge of Spirits than to standard action franchises. But details beyond that concept-level material were scarce for years. Internal turbulence and long development cycles are visible in Everwild’s timeline. The project appears to have begun at Rare mid‑decade, went through public teases in 2019–2020, and then entered a prolonged period of redesign and internal reassessment. Creative leadership changed: Simon Woodroffe departed in 2020, and veteran Rare designer Gregg Mayles is reported to have taken charge during a 2021 reboot of the project — moves that were widely covered and later confirmed in contemporary reporting.
Microsoft’s broader restructuring and Xbox’s staffing cuts in mid‑2025 changed the calculus for several first‑party projects. As part of company‑wide layoffs, Microsoft cancelled multiple internal projects — among them Everwild — in a round that affected thousands of positions and closed or pared back several studios. Reporting from multiple outlets places the cancellation in that July 2025 wave.
What leaked: the screenshots, their provenance, and what they show
Where the images came from
The screenshots were first highlighted by MP1st after appearing on the online portfolio of an artist who lists Rare among previous employers. Multiple outlets subsequently reproduced and analyzed the images; the coverage stresses the same point: these are in‑progress captures, apparently taken from a build near the point of cancellation rather than from a promotional trailer or finished retail code. Neither Rare nor Microsoft has confirmed the images, and outlets treating the leak have been careful to label provenance as coming from an artist portfolio rather than an official release.The visible UI and gameplay hints
Taken together, the images give a rare look at Everwild’s systems rather than its cinematics. Key elements visible in the gallery include:- An inventory UI split across multiple tabs: Favourites, Figments, Tools, Mosaics, Seeds, and Plants. That tab structure suggests a game built around collection, curation, and world interaction rather than conventional combat loops.
- A Figments tab showing small, characterful spirit‑like creatures — one labeled as “Light Figment” in the screenshots — which implies companion or utility creatures that players would collect, use, or manage. The look evokes comparisons to Pikmin or Zelda’s Koroks, but presented in Rare’s softer, painterly style.
- A Mosaics section containing decorative art pieces and collectible tiles — evidence of a non‑combat collectible system with a possible emphasis on storytelling, in‑world lore, or player decoration.
- A Seeds / Plants section that lists seeds like “Shrub Seed” and a plant compendium, strongly suggesting nurturing, planting, or horticulture mechanics were intended to be core to the experience. Combined with the Figments, this points to a design where environmental stewardship and ecosystem building were gameplay pillars.
- Several environmental screenshots and in‑engine captures that match the trailers’ aesthetic: luminous forests, stone circles, and temple‑like ruins, suggesting the leaked build retained the franchise’s strong visual identity even if its mechanical identity was unsettled.
Development history and the problems the project faced
Long gestation, high ambition
Everwild’s concept — an antidote to violent, loot‑driven design — positioned Rare to build something distinct within Xbox’s portfolio. But the studio’s own history and the industry’s economic constraints made any such experiment risky at scale. Over the years, reporting surfaced that Everwild had been through multiple prototypes and a substantial 2021 reboot; those resets are usually signs that core gameplay loops weren’t landing as intended.Leadership churn and a full reboot
Simon Woodroffe’s departure in 2020 coincided with a period of uncertainty, followed by the 2021 appointment of Gregg Mayles, a Rare stalwart with decades of studio experience. Mayles’ involvement — and an internal restart — was treated as a stabilizing move at the time, but rebooting a project mid‑generation is both expensive and time‑consuming. Industry reporting indicated teams experimented with non‑violence, creature systems, and shared or co‑op mechanics that proved tricky to translate into satisfying, repeatable gameplay loops.The July 2025 cancellation
In July 2025 Microsoft conducted a sweeping round of layoffs and reorganizations across the company; Xbox’s roster of projects was affected, and multiple long‑running efforts — Everwild included — were cancelled. Coverage from major outlets placed Everwild’s cancellation within that same layoff event and characterized the studio as both bruised and redirecting personnel to other priorities like Sea of Thieves or external opportunities. The layoff figure commonly reported across outlets is in the thousands and often cited at roughly 9,000 affected roles company‑wide.Analysis: Why did Everwild fail to ship, and what do the screenshots tell us?
Creative ambition vs. the need for a repeatable loop
The screenshots underscore a core tension: Rare’s art direction and creature design were mature and distinctive, but the UI-centric images hint that the game’s playable components — the systems that turn art into sustained player engagement — were still works in progress. The inventory tabs read like the scaffolding of a charming, systems‑heavy game, but they don’t reveal whether those systems formed a satisfying feedback loop. That’s precisely the problem sources reported: Everwild had a captivating world but struggled to be a coherent game.The cost of multiple reboots
Rebooting a title is often the right artistic call, but it increases cost and risk. A 2021 restart under Gregg Mayles likely bought the team clarity of vision, but it also reset budget and schedule. In today’s environment, publishers — even deep‑pocketed ones like Microsoft — will sometimes cut projects that cannot demonstrate a clear path to completion or monetization, particularly when broader corporate priorities shift. The cancellation alongside a large corporate restructuring reflects that harsh calculus.Leaks as evidence of near‑completion — and of lost work
The leaked images suggest that a non‑trivial build existed: inventory, named items, and interface iterations typically appear during mid‑to‑late development. While this doesn’t mean a retail‑ready product was imminent, it does mean significant design and art work went into the game — work that will never reach players as originally intended. For fans and preservationists, that’s bittersweet; for studios and publishers, such losses are simply a line item in a larger financial adjustment.Community reaction and reputational ripple effects
Fan disappointment and the “what if” currency
Rare has a fervent fanbase, and Everwild’s aesthetic and implied mechanics inspired optimistic parallels to Viva Piñata. The leak prompted immediate outpourings of disappointment, nostalgia, and speculation about whether the game could — or should — be resurrected by another studio. Those conversations are part artistic lament and part reaction against the corporate realities behind cancellations.Xbox’s brand narrative
Everwild’s cancellation occurred amid broader coverage of Xbox’s internal changes, renewing debates about the platform’s first‑party strategy and investment discipline. Critics seized on the cancellations as evidence of mismanagement, while defenders argued that pruning is necessary for long‑term portfolio health. In either case, high‑profile cancellations damage confidence among some fans and industry watchers, even if they can be strategically justified internally.Preservation, legality, and the ethics of leaked assets
Leaks are a double‑edged sword
Leaked materials for canceled games have become a regular feature of modern gaming culture. On one hand, they preserve work that corporate decisions would otherwise bury; on the other, they can expose private creative labor and IP before owners are willing to present it. The Everwild screenshots — shared from an artist’s portfolio — illustrate that tension. From a preservationist perspective, leaks can be invaluable. From a legal and ethical viewpoint, circulating unpublished material raises issues about consent, confidentiality, and the protection of intellectual property.What studios and publishers can learn
Publishers can reduce the odds of messy public waves by creating clearer transition plans for canceled projects, including skeleton archives, public retrospective assets, or curated showcases that honor teams’ work without exposing sensitive assets irresponsibly. That won’t stop leaks entirely, but better stewardship communicates respect for both creators and the community. Rare’s own handling of the Everwild cancellation — moving some staff to other projects and publicly acknowledging studio impact — was covered as part of Microsoft’s broader statements, but the leak shows gaps remain in how in‑progress work is handled when projects stop.What the future looks like for Rare and Everwild’s IP
Rare’s strengths remain real
Despite the cancellation, Rare’s craft in creature design, colour, and worldbuilding is evident in both official trailers and the leaked screenshots. The studio’s recent success with Sea of Thieves proved it can sustain a major live service, and those skills are transferable: art, pipeline expertise, and online systems are valuable across multiple game types. The question is whether Rare will get the green light to return to ambitious single‑player or hybrid projects, or pivot further toward live services where Xbox sees steady returns.Could Everwild be revived elsewhere?
Legally and practically, reviving Everwild in any recognizable form would require Microsoft’s sanction: IP ownership, retained assets, and licensing choices are all corporate decisions. In rare cases the publisher might license or sell a canceled IP, or allow a different internal studio to pick up the concept; in others the IP remains shelved indefinitely. Given how distinct Everwild’s aesthetic and systems appeared, a future revival — whether by Rare or another team — remains possible but uncertain. The leaked assets make a stronger public case that a playable blueprint existed, which could influence future decisions, but they don’t change the underlying business calculus.Practical lessons for developers and publishers
- Be rigorous about identifying a core loop early. Projects built around experience rather than explicit mechanics must still define repeatable player actions and measurable engagement.
- Limit high‑cost reboots when schedules or budgets are tight; adopt staged prototyping and hard gates to mitigate mid‑development overhauls.
- Preserve canceled work responsibly. A curated archive or retrospective release honors studio labor while maintaining IP control.
- Improve communication with communities: transparent, regular updates about project status reduce rumor and speculation, even if progress is incremental.
- Guard public and private portfolios. Artists’ portfolios are legitimate career tools, but companies and teams should clarify publishable materials for projects no longer active to avoid inadvertent leaks that expose sensitive work.
Final verdict: a lost Rare experiment that still matters
Everwild’s leaked screenshots are a vivid reminder of the difference between art and a working game. They show a studio producing worldbuilding, creature concepts, and UI work that was visually and thematically promising. They also highlight the practical problems that sank the project: leadership churn, a multi‑year reboot, unclear gameplay identity, and a corporate environment that ultimately prioritized portfolio discipline over long, expensive experimentation.For Rare fans the images are both tantalizing and tragic: proof of something beautiful that never reached players. For the industry they’re a case study in how modern game development’s cost structure forces even beloved studios into hard choices. And for Microsoft, Everwild’s cancellation — and the images that followed — will be part of the broader reckoning about how the company balances creative risk with fiscal accountability.
The screenshots don’t tell the whole story, and many core claims about internal decision‑making and final design remain known only to those who worked on Everwild. But they do confirm that Rare built tangible systems and UI around an ecology of figments, seeds, and mosaics — tools that, had the game finished, might have produced a rare, gentle alternative to mainstream AAA design. Whether Everwild’s DNA lives on in future Rare projects or as inspiration for other studios, these leaked fragments ensure its ideas won’t be forgotten.
Source: Windows Central Everwild Screenshots Reveals Rare’s Cancelled Xbox Game