Here we go. Diving right in—hope this makes sense! So—40 years ago, yep, a whopping 1985, the British video game creator Rare was born. Or should I say, spawned? They came out of something called Ultimate Play the Game. Perhaps it was a British thing? Anyway, they went on to do some epic stuff with Nintendo and Xbox. You’ve probably heard of games like Donkey Kong Country or GoldenEye 007. Classics, right? There’s also Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Piñata, and Sea of Thieves. Yeah, that last one’s all about pirates. Arrr, matey!
So now, like, they decided to celebrate this big ol’ 40th anniversary by teaming up with 8BitDo. Together, they created a limited-edition wireless Xbox controller. And guess what? It comes plastered with all these cool designs from Rare’s legendary games. But—and here’s the kicker—seems they picked the worst possible time to launch this controller. There’s all this drama going on between Xbox and Rare. Sigh.
Okay, brain rewind for a sec. Recent fiascos? Yeah, Xbox and Rare have been in the spotlight—like, in that “You’re in trouble” way. Mostly involving layoffs and game cancellations. Picture this: Microsoft and Xbox have been, you know, “adjusting” their workforce despite definitely not crying poor. Thousands are being laid off even though they say business is good? Sold my last Xbox faster than they update those things. Strange world. Xbox is lagging behind Nintendo and PlayStation somehow.
The layoff saga started around 2023. They booted out 10,000 people! Imagine that number. Then it just kept rolling—2,550 in 2024, and around 6,000 by mid-2025. Get this, another 9,000 employees shown the door by July 2025. Breakneck speed, huh? Bleak stuff. They’re cutting work here and there. Phil Spencer, Xbox’s head honcho, wants to make the company more, um, nimble? Mind you, this is despite “having lots of players.” Who’s running the show even?
And, in the mix of this, games died off. Not always pretty stories, but there you go, thanks to budget slashing. The Perfect Dark reboot? Gone, kind of like it was a ghost all along. Everwild, Rare’s own fresh action-adventure baby—also gone. Poof! Zenimax’s Blackbird got the axe too. Whatever that was going to be. It’s apparently the price of restructuring? Who knows.
Speaking of Everwild, there were pretty ambitious plans. It was supposed to be this magical stuff. Started pulling it together in 2014 but hit bumps. Took a redo in 2021, and then zap, before it was real free-floating fairy-tale magic in 2024, it’s getting shelved. Meanwhile, one tease after another. Some say it’s third-person, Viva Piñata-like? But nobody really saw it in action.
Oh oh, then Gregg Mayles left. He was this rare gem at Rare (pun intended, or is it?) since 1989, and was the brain behind so much of what they did right. Talk about your cats with nine lives in the gaming world. Sadly, he’s walked. So as the world turns, Rare gets hit, staff downsized, creativity gym-locked, and iconic developers gone. They even chucked a plaque at Ashby-de-la-Zouch to remember the good times.
Celebrations turned somber real fast, didn’t they? A moment that should be glowing is now, uh—the lights are dimmed? Would Everwild have been legendary? Or maybe, just maybe, it was kept safe in some developers’ wild dreams. We’ll never know. Is that it? Looks like it. Until next round of whatever crazy rollercoaster the gaming world’s got planned.