Banjo-Kazooie director Gregg Mayles confirms he is left Uncommon

Gregg Mayles, the director of Sea of Thieves and designer on Donkey Kong Nation, has introduced that he is left Uncommon. Information of Mayles’ exit in July 2025 throughout a throughout Xbox Video games Studios, however the quick poem he immediately makes it official.

With a 36-year tenure on the studio, Mayles noticed its transition from an unique Nintendo companion to a Microsoft subsidiary. He helped design video games like Battletoads, created Banjo-Kazooie and when studio founders Tim and Chris Stamper left in 2007, stepped up and have become Uncommon’s artistic director. Mayles additionally led the workforce behind Sea of Thieves, one in all Uncommon’s trendy successes.

The studio has been supporting Sea of Thieves with new content material because it was launched in 2018, however was additionally engaged on a brand new undertaking, Everwild, that was . The sport went via a troubled improvement course of over the previous couple of years, and Uncommon with Mayles taking up as director. Microsoft’s determination to cancel the sport and layoff employees on the studio this summer time is probably going one of many causes he left.

Shedding Mayles is only one instance of Microsoft’s self-inflicted wounds from 2025. The corporate not solely made cuts at and Forza Motorsport developer , it additionally elevated the costs of each Xbox consoles and Game Pass Ultimate. All of those modifications are seemingly in service of shifting the Xbox enterprise into one thing that is extra centered on subscriptions and sport publishing, however the transition undoubtedly looks like a painful one.