Everwild creative director Simon Woodroffe has resigned from his position at Rare, VGC reports.
In a statement to VGC, Rare studio head Craig Duncan confirmed these details, thanking Woodroffe and wishing him luck on future endeavours.
Information on Everwild is still scarce. In previous teasers, Rare presented an open-world adventure game focused on the flora and fauna of its mysterious world, but avoided getting into the nitty gritty of the gameplay as it’s still early in development.
While VGC reports that Woodroffe resigned earlier this month, this is the second time in two days information has been made public about a director leaving development at a major Microsoft studio. Bloomberg reported yesterday that 343 Industries studio head Chris Lee stepped down as director on Halo Infinite, making him the second director to divest from the project after Tim Longo left in 2019.
Xbox consoles have long had issues providing a compelling slate of exclusive, first-party games, despite Microsoft parenting several excellent studios. The company faces stiff competition from Sony, and it needs studios like 343 Industries and Rare to produce games capable of taking on major, PlayStation 5-exclusive releases like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls, and the God of War sequel.
Microsoft’s recent acquisition of ZeniMax Media is sure to help on that front, but these repeated, high-profile departures at major studios are certainly cause for concern.
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