The summer and the E3 period crystallize many expectations on the part of players. But, once again, Rare's next project did not show up, much to the despair of those who were eagerly awaiting it. Instead, the latter were treated to very little reassuring information about the project.
It must be said that the silence around the game did not bode well. However, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty recently took the time to clarify the situation, nearly four months after the report was released.
Everwild, really in trouble?
As the gaming world embarked on the annual E3 festivities, some studios, like Rare, weren't quite in the party spirit. For good reason, the VGC site returned to the absence of the game during the summer video game high mass by announcing that Everwild would have started a complete overhaul at almost all levels.
This decision would have been taken following the departure of Simon Woodroffe, the former creative director of the project. In addition, the VGC site also mentioned significant changes on the side of the general direction of the project which would therefore have resulted in a shift of the game which would now aim for a release in 2024 on PC and Xbox Series X|S.
At the helm of this reboot, we now find Gregg Mayles, a big name from Rare who worked on some of the studio's greatest hits, like Sea of Thieves which reached a new record. Asked about these changes at the time, the teams were confident and enthusiastic about the direction taken by the game. And according to recent comments by Matt Booty, the report used too strong terms, out of step with the real situation of project.
A report more alarmist than anything else
It is therefore at the microphone of the YouTube channel Kinda Funny Games that Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Games Studios, confided in order, in a way, to restore the truth around the project and the latest statements. According to him, the comments made about Everwild were "more categorical" and "a little more extreme" than the reality of the situation.
As Matt Booty reminds us, building a game is a complex process and subject to many changes, especially when a studio like Rare wants to put all of its narrative and artistic touch on it. It is in particular this long work of reflection that makes him say that the words used, such as "reset" and "restructuring", are out of step with the reality of the facts.
Deliberately reassuring, Matt Booty explains that Rare is currently in a phase where the teams are trying to put together all the small decisions that will give life and strength to Everwild as best as possible and that they are "just trying to make sure that they have something special”. He also invites all players to be patient and declares that Rare and Xbox will reveal more when it is possible to do so because they "don't want to keep things hidden for too long".
