Of course, reports have revealed that Rare itself has been unable to nail down a concrete direction for the game throughout its long development cycle, with the developer having rebooted the project after the departure of its previous creative director. Since that reboot, it seems, the title seems to have taken on a different shape than originally intended.

According to VGC’s Andy Robinson, who recently took to Twitter to touch on Rare’s elusive game, Everwild might no longer be as much of a survival game as its early showing had suggested it would be, and instead seems to be adopting elements that are similar to Rare’s  Xbox 360 title Viva Pinata.

While Robinson hasn’t elaborated on what that will entail, Viva Pinata was a game that focused on simulation mechanics, with quite a bit of emphasis placed on gardening and restoring neglected locations as a result. Exactly what sort of cues Everwild is taking from that premise remains to be seen.

Around the time that reports of Everwild’s development reboot emerged, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty said that the claims were “a little extreme”, though subsequent reports have insisted that the title’s development is “a real mess”.

As per leaks, in the wake of its last reboot, Everwild was tentatively targeting a 2023 or 2024 launch window.

Last I heard it was a bit more Viva Pinata than the survival game the earlier trailers hinted at. The team there will knock it out of the park, I'm certain.

— Andy Robinson (@Andy_VGC) June 5, 2023

Following the Activision-Blizzard deal, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has cited his desire to work on franchises from his childhood. Inevitably that leads to the question: What other titles could be brought back for the Xbox Series X/S generation? Let’s take a look at 15 of them here.

Scalebound

Set in a fantasy world with dragons, it saw protagonist Drew having a massive dragon named Thuban by his side. Along with functioning independently, one could also give commands to Thuban while fighting. It was also possible to directly control the dragon and enter Berserker mode for increased power. Announced in 2014 as an Xbox One exclusive, the hack and slash combat combined with battles on a massive scale looked promising, especially with up to four players in co-op.

Originally slated for release in late 2016, Scalebound would be delayed to the next year and subsequently cancelled in January 2017. Studio head Atsushi Inaba felt that “both sides failed” when it came to the cancellation and that it “didn’t do all of the things that we needed to do as a developer.” PlatinumGames has expressed interest in returning to the project – especially since Microsoft still owns the IP. It may not happen any time soon but never say never.

In response to a fan plea for an all new Viva Pinata game, Microsoft PR spokesperson Larry “Major” Hyrb “Nelson” gave fans of the cult game the slightest glimmer of hope, saying that, while the decision to develop another Viva Pinata game rests with the head of Rare, he would send the Reddit thread which contained the plea the the appropriate person. The quote was as follows:

“FYI: I sent this thread to the head of Rare. So I am sure he’s lurking here. Somewhere.”

While this certainly isn’t much to go on, it has been proven that the heads of major game publishers and development companies are largely either lurking or are actually posting on Reddit, so this assurance from Major Nelson is no small thing. It’s safe to assume the head of Rare will see the plea thread.

Additionally, Rare has expressed interest in the past of developing an all-new Viva Pinata game which would utilize the Kinect motion sensor on the Xbox One. However, Microsoft head Phil Spencer has also stated that he would rather Rare focus on platform games that those that utilize the Kinect.

Stay tuned to Gamingbolt to see if a new Viva Pinata becomes more than just a Reddit plea.

People want Microsoft to bolster their first party offerings. They want Rare to revive some of their old franchises. They want Rare to get off the Kinect and return to their old peak, which people loved them for.

Two of those things may be happening.

Speaking to OXM, Simon Woodroffe from Rare talked about the studio’s future beyond Kinect Sports Rivals, which releases next year.

First, a word to those who may be slightly prejudiced against the game because of it being on Kinect- this one is not solely a Kinect game, and uses the Xbox One controller in conjunction with the advanced motion sensing afforded by the new Kinect technology. So this might actually turn out to be a pretty good title, not just on its own merits, but also a good title period.

Anyway, Rare is looking at making similar Kinect enhanced games in some of its historic, classic franchises.

“When we launched Kinect obviously there was a big focus on ‘everything must be Kinect,'” he said in a behind-closed-door chat at the show. “Now it’s in the box, use it where it make sense, don’t where it doesn’t. It can be used in some really – not gimmicky ways, which is what I think you’ll see a fair amount of – but ways that actually really enhance the game. We’ve got some ideas for how to use it in the right way.”

Could this be in a new Perfect Dark, OXM asked.

“Maybe! We’ve got an idea for that. It would be controller plus Kinect. We’ve got ideas for most older Rare IP, you won’t be surprised to hear. There’s quite a lot of desire to do that, and Viva Pinata, Conker… Banjo’s very popular internally, a lot of people want to do stuff with Banjo.

“So if we can find the right – we’re all about giving people new experiences, that’s what we want to do. It’s a very technical studio. I’m relatively new, what I’ve learned is they’re brilliant at technology, they really know how to make creative things out of technology.

“We want to find that thing that nobody’s ever done before and make a game out of it. We should be inventing new genres, inventing new ways to play. And this sensor gives us new opportunities to do it, with the fidelity it has now.”

There was one more thing he said, which is likely to be heartening to fans of the classic studio’s heyday- the studio will, like before, start working on multiple titles at once following Kinect Sports Rivals, and also get better at providing post launch support for its games.

It almost sounds like Rare might be primed for a comeback, but those among us who know better know that can’t be right.