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.
Leave a Comment
Written by Reece Heather
A lifelong Nintendo fan and a longtime editor at Zelda Universe, Reece will forever be grateful that he somehow dodged the Naughty List of Christmas 1998, when Santa delivered the life-changing gift of a Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Mario Kart 64. When he's not playing games, Reece is usually reading Punisher comics, delving helplessly into the weirdest depths of anime and manga, or spending time with his cocker spaniel Gracie -- the goodest girl ever!
