Thanks to a serious of studio acquisitions in recent years, as well as the creation of studios like The Initiative, the Xbox brand has plenty of exclusive games currently in development. While Bethesda's upcoming titles like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 certainly get a lot of attention, there are still a ton of major Xbox exclusive games coming out in 2022 like Redfall, Shredders, and many expect games like Hellblade 2 to make its debut as well.
However, one game that gets constantly overlooked is Everwild, the interesting yet mysterious Xbox exclusive coming from Rare. A part of the reason why that might be is how secretive the game continues to be, with little information to go on as well as the fact that a new trailer for it hasn't been shown since the Eternals footage from 2020. One reason why Everwild hasn't been a major focus for Microsoft lately is due to the rumored chaotic state the game is currently experiencing.
According to industry insider Jeff Grubb, Everwild is a real mess at the moment. Taking to the XboxEra Podcast, Grubb revealed new information on what he's been hearing on the game, hinting that development isn't going particularly smooth. After seemingly rebooting Everwild earlier this year, many developers at Rare are still figuring out the state of the game, unsure of what's going on with it. For a game under development for a few years now, the news isn't good if that is indeed true.
It's seemingly been a rough road for the Xbox exclusive, which was originally pitched as an action-adventure game when it was announced at the X019 event. However, Everwild's rough development has been marked by high profile departures like industry veteran and Creative Director Simon Woodroffe. Either way, this new setback more than likely further pushes back any sort of release date even further than it was already.
While most of the public news surrounding Everwild has typically been less than positive, there are reasons for optimism that Rare will figure this out. As work continues on, the team added former Alien: Isolation lead designer Gary Napper a few weeks back. The addition of high profile talent should help, especially with Napper's history within the industry. In addition to his work on Alien: Isolation with Sega and Creative Assembly, Napper has worked for other high profile studios like Supermassive Games, Sony, Criterion, and EA.
Everwild is currently in development for PC and Xbox Series X|S.