Gregg Mayles, director of Sea of Thieves and designer on Donkey Kong Countryannounced he was leaving Rare. News of Mayles’ release in July 2025 while touring Xbox Game Studios, but the short poem he has today makes it official.
With a 36-year tenure at the studio, Mayles saw its transition from exclusive Nintendo partner to Microsoft subsidiary. He helped design games like Battle toads, created Banjo-Kazooie and when the studio’s founders, Tim and Chris Stamper, left in 2007, they became creative director of Rare. Mayles also led the team behind Sea of Thievesone of Rare’s modern successes.
The studio supported Sea of Thieves with new content since its release in 2018, but was also working on a new project, Always wildit was . The game went through a difficult development process over the past few years and Rare was replaced by Mayles as director. Microsoft’s decision to cancel the game and lay off studio staff this summer is likely one of the reasons he left the studio.
The loss of Mayles is just one example of Microsoft’s self-inflicted wounds starting in 2025. The company has not only reduced the number of Forza Motorsport developers, but it has also increased the prices of Xbox consoles and Game Pass Ultimate. All of these changes are ostensibly aimed at moving the Xbox business into something more focused on subscriptions and game publishing, but the transition definitely seems painful.
