Gregg Mayles, designer of many beloved games on Nintendo systems and a veteran at developer Rare, will be leaving the company after 35 years of service.
This is according to multiple people from the studio, who spoke anonymously to VGC. The sources said that Mayles made the decision following the cancellation of Everwild – an action-adventure title that was being developed for Xbox – which he had been directing since 2021.
Executive producer Louise O’Connor, whose work at Rare goes back as far as Nintendo 64 title Conker’s Bad Fur Day, is also leaving the company.
Having worked on almost 30 games at Rare, Mayles’ many contributions include design work for Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country. He was also the director of Banjo-Kazooie and Sea of Thieves.
Formerly a second-party Nintendo developer, Rare was acquired by Microsoft in 2002. With Mayles’ departure, only a handful of employees from the pre-Microsoft era remain at the company.
Microsoft confirmed Everwild’s cancellation last week, as well as company-wide layoffs for over 9,000 employees.
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
