Rare’s 40th Anniversary Xbox Controller Sparks Controversy

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Forty years. That’s how long it’s been since Rare, the British video game developer we all know and maybe even love, originally got its start back on August 4, 1985. I guess they came out of some 1982 British developer-what was it, Ultimate Play the Game? Yeah, that rings a bell. Anyway, Rare’s given us some real classics, right? Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie… the list goes on. Those were the days, with Rare teaming up with Nintendo and Xbox. Can we just pause and remember Viva Piñata for a second? Seriously, such a colorful, weird game. And Sea of Thieves… well, it’s out there sailing its own sea now.

So, fast forward to 2025, the big 4-0 for Rare. They decide to mark the occasion with a snazzy little gadget. Yep, they teamed up with 8BitDo—those folks make cool stuff, don’t they? They came up with this limited-edition wireless Xbox controller. It’s decked out with patterns from some of Rare’s hits. But here’s the kicker: this announcement? It kinda dropped at a not-so-great time. See, there’s been a bit of a mess with Xbox and Rare lately.

Now let me try to unravel this for you. Microsoft and Xbox have been doing this whole layoff shuffle. Since 2023, they’ve been showing folks the door—10,000 in ’23, then more year after year. I lost count at some point. First, it was 2,550 in 2024, and then a whole lot more. They’re cutting left and right, even though, oddly enough, Xbox keeps saying, “Hey, we’ve got more players, more games—everything’s peachy!” But is it really?

A bunch of games got canned, which is a shame. Ever heard of the Perfect Dark reboot? Yep, gone. Zenimax was working on something cool too, codenamed Blackbird or something. Poof, all gone. Let’s not forget Everwild—Rare’s ambitious new project. It’s sad, right? They built up all this hope with cinematic trailers, but now zilch. Even the brand-new developer team, The Initiative, shut down because of these cuts. Wild times.

I gotta say, Rare’s not exactly been releasing blockbusters lately. Their last big game was a Battletoads reboot in 2020. Meanwhile, Sea of Thieves is their darling. So, Everwild was supposed to be this fresh start from a project they began all the way back in 2014. Yeah, it’s been that long. But it changed directions more than once, and with the creative director jumping ship… well, you see where this is going.

Here’s an intriguing bit: Phil Spencer from Microsoft Gaming even played a chunk of Everwild in 2024 and gave it a nod. “Nailed the gameplay loop,” he said. But then Everwild gets the ax. Matt Booty (what a name for a gaming guy, right?) says it’s about tweaking priorities. Industry landscape yadda yadda. Who knows what’s cooking at Rare now?

As if things weren’t rocky enough, one of their big creative minds, Gregg Mayles, left too. This guy joined Rare as a kid and stuck around, creating all these beloved games. Creative director since 2007, and he was working on Everwild too. So his departure leaves a heck of a gap.

Now, despite all this drama, a teensy bright spot: someone put up a plaque at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It’s like a tribute to Rare’s legacy or something. You might say it’s a silver lining, celebrating where it all began amid this swirl of changes. Maybe there’s hope yet for Rare. Fingers crossed, right?