Rare's Gregg Mayles Confirms He Has Left After 36 Years at the Studio - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 14 October 2025 / 2,535 Views
Gregg Mayles, who has worked at Rare for over 35 years, has confirmed the earlier reports he has left the company.
"Today was my last day at Rare," said Mayles.
"Thanks to everyone who played and enjoyed any of the games I helped create while I was there. Also thanks to all the people that worked on the games alongside me. It seemed fitting that I should say farewell with one final rhyme!"
Mayles had been the director on the now cancelled Everwild since the team was restructured in 2021. His first credited game was 1990's Solar Jetman.
He also helmed Donkey Kong Country, the Banjo series, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Viva Pinata, and more. He was also the creative director on Sea of Thieves. He has worked on nearly 30 games at Rare over the years.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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It's crazy how Jim Ryan literally predicted that they would bleed top talent like this after all these acquisitions.
Bleed, I would consider retired. 36 years is a long time working at a job let alone a company. He deserves his rest.
He decided to stay for a long time, but decided to go now after the cancellations and layoffs. This is no coincidence, this is Nadella and Hood burning the trust the veterans of these acquired companies had into Xbox.
It'll be hard to find new devs to make games as good as ones he worked on before the Microsoft buyout.
I'm amazed there are any old hands left, honestly.
Microsoft probably told him they could do his Job with AI
and Gregg said "bet"
AI needs some heavy federal regulations... now.
Fuck AI and fuck Microsoft.
When something is afoul, I know I can always count on the Captain show up out of the blue and fuck the holy shit out of it.
I wish I could blow all generative AI servers to pieces.
I completely agree with the second part; however, I do find gemini very useful.
AI is wildly useful... but I do lean towards some level of regulation to maintain some integrity of the workforce.
My work has adopted the "Improve, Not Replace" approach with AI implementation.
But I am aware I work in a special environment that is hyper aware of employee culture and satisfaction so I know most places wont take that approach willingly.
Rare has not made anything that felt like a Rare game in almost 30 years.
Then what about DKC2 to Perfect Dark?
PD is almost 30 years. 25years exactly but 5 off from 30, hence the almost 30
The gutting of RARE continues... Once my favorite developer, now a shadow of it's former self.
Is this really gutting or is it just time to move on. 36 years is a damn long time and at some point new talent need to move in and given a chance and older leaders move on and make way.
Not really seeing any of the "new talent" there being in any position to step up. Rare has the stench of a dying studio.
Other people with tenure aren't stepping up. Rare basically imploded just before the Microsoft acquisition... But even after that, they still released some enjoyable games like Nuts and bolts and Viva Pinata, Sea of Thieves and assisted with Killer Instinct which I enjoyed for what they were.
And sadly... The last of their talent is vacating... And the cancellation of Everwild which I was genuinely excited for doesn't give me any faith. (But that seems to be par-the-course with Microsoft after they cancelled Scalebound and Perfect Dark, two other games I was super excited for.)
What is truly surprising is how Microsoft has even allowed them to continue to exist and be autonomous for the most part.
It's hard for me to get excited when Microsoft is bleeding talent, cancelling games and raising prices across everything... The lack of direction and support for key studios just HURTS.
And Rare pioneered and set the standard for the industry for decades... To see them become essentially irrelevant is criminal.
At some point the old guard will always leave, nothing is forever. No its rare in itself for most companies to keep the same talent for a long period of time and 36 years is a long time to be at one company. All I am saying is that the guy is at retirement age. Yes, the last project he was working on got cancelled but without really knowing anything about the project besides some very old videos years ago, we haven't seen anything from that project. People do get tired, worn down with doing the things they use to be good at but do not have the same passion to continue to keep doing.
Lets be honest here, the games that got cancelled probably should have been cancelled or not even announced until they were at a point where they were in a good chance they would come to market. Phil's problem is probably he gave to much leeway and did not reign things in soon enough instead of betting on these teams and they did not have something after long years of development.
I consider the knee jerk reaction is to blame Phil and MS for these cancellations but you also have to blame the studios as well. Its a 2 way street where the devs needs to reign in and lock in on bringing a high quality game to market on time and at cost because that is how a business works and its MS job as the publisher to help them in any way to accomplish that task. We as gamers always want to side with the devs but without knowing how things are working within those studios we are just pitching a tent based on bias than anything solid.
But at a certain point, you have to look at a common denominator. There are good reasons why Microsoft gets criticized for these game cancellations. At some point, you have to consider whether the problem is systemic, especially when you see a pattern of this sort of thing.
I believe the common denominator is perception. Sony just cancelled a bunch of games no one batted an eye. You concentrate so much on the cancellations but not how many come to market or still in development. That is my point. The games that got cancelled appear to me like they were given plenty of time to come to market and at some point, a decision had to be made. Any game that have multiple reboots already shows no confidence in the direction of the game and we have seen on multiple occasions they usually do not come to market in any type of shape worth playing. My point is that I stopped care about what gets cancelled but instead what gets shipped and in what shape. That to me is the barometer for success.
The bulk of RARE's talent departed RARE just before the Microsoft takeover.
Microsoft isn't responsible for that... But they are responsible for the studio since.
This I agree with but then again, I never cared for Rare in the past so it was never something I felt was an issue. Instead, as I mentioned, I look at what a studio is doing now with the people they have.
He left a ship that was sunk by Micropenis.
Is anyone even left now that was there before the acquisition by Microsoft? Because if not it makes me think of this quote.
"The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away." - Grand Moff Tarkin
36 years! Wow!
