One of Rare's longest-serving staffers has confirmed to Time Extension that he is leaving the company after 35 years, following reports that he was parting ways with the studio after the cancellation of Xbox exclusive Everwild.
Gregg Mayles joined the company in 1989 at the age of 18, and his first credit was the NES title Solar Jetman. He then designed Battletoads, one of Rare's most famous early IPs, and would later design the three Donkey Kong Country titles on the SNES.
His first director's credit was for the N64 title Banjo-Kazooie, and he would work on titles such as Banjo-Tooie, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Kinect Sports, Kinect Sports Rivals and Sea of Thieves. He would eventually become Rare's Creative Director, and in 2021, took charge of the development of Everwild following the resignation of Simon Woodroffe.
Mayles' exit comes as part of a company-wide layoff at Microsoft which has seen 9,000 staffers head for the door. As well as cancelling Everwild, Microsoft has also pulled the plug on Perfect Dark, a reboot of Rare's FPS series which began life on the N64.
The departure of Mayles means that almost all of Rare's "golden era" staffers have now left the British studio.
Steve Mayles, Gregg's brother, left Rare to co-found Yooka-Laylee creator Playtonic alongside fellow Rare alumni like Chris Sutherland and Gavin Price in 2014. Playtonic has become something of a haven for departing Rare staffers since then, although it too was forced to make layoffs recently.