Rare's canceled Everwild has finally been revealed with never-before-seen screenshots showing the game's world, UI, and more

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Everwild was in the works for a decade before it was scrapped

Everwild concept art
(Image credit: Microsoft)
  • The first in-game screenshots from Rare's Everwild have appeared online
  • The screenshots show the game's main character, setting, and UI, just before the game was canceled
  • Everwild was canceled after 10 years of development this summer

The first screenshots of Rare's canceled action-adventure game Everwild have appeared online, giving us a glimpse of the game's progress before it was scrapped by Xbox.

The studio behind Sea of Thieves revealed Everwild in 2019, but development on the game began in 2014. Expected to be a third-person, fantasy adventure game, the project was in development for almost 10 years before it was canceled by Xbox in June amid a series of layoffs and other game cancellations.

Now, a year after the project was shelved, the first in-game screenshots have provided an idea of what the game could have looked like if Rare had been able to complete development.

As reported by MP1st, the images come from the portfolio of a former Rare staff member and show a version of the game "relatively close to its cancelation".

In these images, we can see a silver-haired character, presumably the same character that was showcased in the game's few teaser trailers. They can be seen standing in a forest environment, exploring what looks to be ruins, with an art style not so dissimilar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

There are also inventory screenshots, showing a "favorites" panel and a list of items, including "Figments", which look similar to Breath of the Wild's Korok, "tools", "Mosaics", "seeds", and "plants".

The Figments tab suggests a collectible feature that would have required the player to collect the little creatures for an unknown purpose, and the Mosaics could suggest the same thing.

With the mention of tools, seeds, and plants, it's possible that Everwild could have featured life simulation or survival game elements, which was speculated back in 2023.

A settings menu also shows a range of graphics settings, with several presets to choose from, as well as a "performance and visual option."

When Everwild was canceled, Xbox also announced that The Initiative and the studio's work on Perfect Dark would be shut down, as well as an unannounced game from The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax.

At the time, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said in an email to Xbox staff that the job cuts "reflect a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape."

Not one month later, Xbox also canceled Avalanche Studios' Contraband.

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Demi Williams
Demi Williams

Demi is a freelance games journalist for TechRadar Gaming. She's been a games writer for five years and has written for outlets such as GameSpot, NME, and GamesRadar, covering news, features, and reviews. Outside of writing, she plays a lot of RPGs and talks far too much about Star Wars on X.

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