August 15, 2025, has been an awful day for theXboxcommunity and for the games industry in general. Microsoft haslaid off 9,000 employees, many of whom come from its gaming division. While we still don’t know the exact number of those affected in Microsoft’s gaming sector, we’ve already seen reports of developers such as King, Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software, High Moon Studios, Turn 10, and others receiving layoffs.
Plus, The Initiative, which was working on thePerfect Darkreboot, has been shut down entirely, andthe game is canceled as well. However, there’s one piece of news that I feel is flying under the radar, which could be the most telling sign of things to come. I fear legendary developerRare could be next to shutter its doorsin the near future, based on its recent leadership change.
Rare’s Director Leaves Studio After 35 Years
The End Of An Era For Rare
Rare is a developer that has existed since the NES era, but some key figures from its heyday still worked at the company. One of them is Gregg Mayles, who joined the team back in 1989.Mayles was the lead designer of classics likeDonkey Kong Country 1and2, before directing games likeBanjo-Kazooie, the criminally underratedBanjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, and Rare’s biggest success story on Xbox,Sea of Thieves. Prior to July 2, Mayles was recently working as the creative director at Rare and director of Rare’s upcoming gameEverwild.
LikePerfect Dark,Everwildhas now been canceled. To go along with the cancellation,Gregg Mayles has decided to leave Rare after 35 years, as reported byVGC. He was one of the last remaining devs from the golden era of Rare at the company and remained a key figure at the studio. This could mean that he simply wants to go somewhere else and start fresh, but we’ve seen time and time again that when a key figurehead leaves, it often spells disaster.
This Is Usually A Terrible Sign
Sometimes, when key figureheads leave, it is natural, like Toshihiro Nagoshi leaving Sega or Hideaki Itsuno leaving Capcom. However, usually,it marks the beginning of the end, and this can be seen with both Xbox and PlayStation. Keiichiro Toyama, creator ofSilent Hilland director of many games at Sony Japan Studio, includingSirenandGravity Rush, left in September 2020, only for the studio to be shut down seven months later. The once Xbox-owned studio Tango Gameworks saw its founder, Shinji Mikami, leave in early 2023, and once again, the studio closed the following year.
Thankfully, Xbox backpedaled and allowed Krafton to acquire the studio, but this highlights that sometimes developers may see the writing on the wall. This isn’t to say that Rare is definitely going to be shut down in the near future, but it’s something to consider. Rare still has the widely successfulXboxlive-service gameSea of Thieves, despite the cancellation ofEverwild, but history has shown that a big studio head leaving is rarely a good thing.
