Tom Phillips
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New screenshots have surfaced of Everwild, the long-awaited fantasy game in development for more than a decade — until its cancelation this summer by Xbox.
Everwild was the work of Sea of Thieves studio Rare, the veteran British team with a string of classic hits. But the long-gestating project was axed in July amid a sweeping wave of layoffs and project cancelations within Microsoft.
Now, a series of fresh Everwild screenshots has cropped online via the portfolio of a former staff member. MP1st reports that the screenshots are believed to show a version of the game "relatively close to its cancelation," depicting a silver-haired hero character exploring ruins in a forest.
While we've seen glimpses of Everwild before via teaser trailers, Rare has always remained tight-lipped around what its gameplay would actually entail. But there are clues here, gleaned from a look at the game's inventory screen, which shows an extensive list of items and tabs.
Inventory sections shown include "favorites," "figments," "tools," "mosaics," "seeds" and "plants." Figments appear to be plantlike creatures — a little like Pikmin, albeit with onion heads. One pale green creature is labeled as a "Light Figment," with other variants shown in blue, white and brown colors.
The game's extensive seed compendium includes an item named the "Shrub Seed," from which you can grow shrubs. Mosaics, meanwhile, include creatures seen in previous Everwild teasers, such as a deer-like animal with a large orange crest.
A settings menu can also be seen, which would reportedly have relied on Sea of Thieves player data when suggesting common gameplay configurations.
Everwild was expected to be a third-person fantasy adventure game with god-genre elements, though its development underwent several changes, including a full reboot following the the exit of creative director Simon Woodroffe in 2020. Rare filled the director's chair with veteran designer Gregg Mayles, who previously worked on Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Pinata, and Sea of Thieves. Mayles is now believed to have left the studio entirely following Everwild's cancelation.
What's next for Rare? Outside of Sea of Thieves, it's unclear. A recent Community Direct broadcast by the developer made clear the studio was doubling down on its pirate-live service game, with plans to keep it updated for at least a couple more years. A fresh revenue stream for the title will also arrive in early 2026, with the additional of a paid subscription to unlock custom servers.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social