Banjo-Kazooie director Greg Mayles has confirmed he’s now left Rare after 36 years at the British studio.
News broke of his departure in the wake of layoffs at Microsoft back in July, but now Mayles himself has announced his departure on social media – fittingly, with a rhyme.
N64 platformer Banjo-Kazooie was known for its script of rhyming couplets, and this charming post references plenty of the games Mayles worked on, from Battletoads and Donkey Kong, to Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Viva Piñata.
In total, Mayles worked on almost 30 games for Rare.
While his announcement gives no specific reason for leaving the studio, he was overseeing development on the now-cancelled Everwild, which presumably prompted his departure.
It comes at a rocky time for Rare. Acquired by Microsoft back in 2002, the studio has struggled to reach the same success it had on the N64. Live-service pirate game Sea of Thieves, released in 2019, is its biggest recent hit, incidentally directed by Mayles.
Yet in July Microsoft laid off a number of employees across its gaming division. Rare’s long-in-development Everwild was cancelled, as was The Initiative’s Perfect Dark – a reboot of Rare’s shooter series.
Executive producer Louise O’Connor also reportedly left the company alongside Mayles, having joined the studio in 1999 for N64 platformer Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
As such, it’s now unclear what Rare is working on next beyond continued development on Sea of Thieves. The departure of top developers further puts the studio’s future into question.
First screenshots of Everwild leaked earlier this week, providing a look at the game’s UI. Little was known about the game beyond the trailers officially released. Similarly, details on the Perfect Dark reboot leaked last month.
