After Microsoft’s cuts, Rare will discuss the future of Sea of Thieves tomorrow
Live stream will reveals the next two seasons “and beyond”
Rare will hold its first-ever Sea of Thieves community direct on Thursday.
The broadcast, which will be viewable via the video belwo, will begin at 3 PM UK / 10 AM ET and will feature “a look at our next two Seasons and beyond”, according to Rare.
“Join core crew members for the first ever Sea of Thieves Community Direct, where they’ll talk about upcoming Seasons, big Insider Programme changes and a much-requested feature that’s recently been ticking away in development,” it said.
The stream comes a week after Rare lost several veteran developers as part of widespread layoffs at Microsoft, which saw its in-development project, Everwild, cancelled.
Gregg Mayles, Rare’s most experienced and influential game designer, will leave the company after more than 35 years following the cancellation of Everwild, sources have told VGC.
According to the sources, executive producer Louise O’Connor, another Rare veteran whose first project was Conker’s Bad Fur Day for Nintendo 64, will also leave the company following Everwild’s cancellation.
Rare first announced Everwild in November 2019 and released another trailer in July 2020. Updates on the game were scarce in the years that followed, except for gaming boss Phil Spencer‘s insistence that “progress” was being made on the title earlier this year.
Microsoft confirmed a significant wave of layoffs last week, which could reportedly see as much as 4%, or roughly 9,100, of the company’s total employees, across all departments, including gaming, affected.
“We continue to implement organizational and workforce changes that are necessary to position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.
In a message sent to all staff, Microsoft’s head of gaming, Phil Spencer, stated that the cuts were designed to “end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.”
