Romero Games – the studio founded by industry veterans John and Brenda Romero – has announced that its game has had its funding canceled thanks to a "strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control."
Doom and Quake veteran John Romero, who previously co-founded id Software, announced that he was working on an "all-new FPS with an original, new IP" at Romero Games back in 2022. At the time, it was stated that the devs were "working with a major publisher," and although very little else was revealed, it sounded promising just from its team alone.
However, a statement posted by Brenda Romero on Twitter today shares "some difficult news." She explains: "Last night, we learned that our publisher has canceled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects at other studios. This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control. We deeply wish there had been something, anything, we could have done to prevent this outcome."
She clarifies that "this absolutely isn't a reflection of our team's work, performance, or the quality of the project itself. We hit every milestone on time, every time, consistently received high praise, and easily passed all our internal gates." Romero is "incredibly proud of the work being done," and calls the "talented team" working on it "the best we've worked with."
Furthermore, Romero says "we're currently evaluating next steps and working quickly to support our team," noting that "we're heartbroken that it's come to this." She thanks those who've already shared their support, and asks for anyone to reach out if they're aware of "any opportunities or ways you can help our incredible team."
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It's not currently clear what this means for the future of the project – the statement doesn't say the whole game has been outright canceled, but without funding from its publisher, it's certainly not a good situation to be in.
This comes after a wave of dire news following even more layoffs at Microsoft, which has also impacted its gaming division. Amid the job cuts, Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot have been canceled, and it's also been claimed that The Elder Scrolls Online developer Zenimax Online Studios has had its new MMO canceled.
A number of Romero Games employees have also revealed that they've also been laid off as part of the Microsoft layoffs, with hard surface artist Christoph Redl saying that "due to the recent Xbox layoffs, I've lost my position at Romero Games." Another post from senior producer Emily Winters says: "Unfortunately, I've been impacted by the recent layoffs at Microsoft and am now open to work effective immediately." She gives "a big thank you to Romero Games for these past couple months."
Meanwhile, a post from technical artist Leslie Stowe even states that "our whole studio is being let go because of the layoffs at Microsoft." We've reached out to Xbox for clarification about this.
We also asked Romero Games about the scope of the layoffs, what this means for the future of its FPS game, and whether Microsoft (or rather, Xbox Games Studios) was previously planned to be its publisher, but they declined to comment further.
John Romero has shared the studio's official statement on Twitter, adding: "These people are the best people I've ever worked with, and I'm sorry to say that our game and our studio were also affected."
Of the 9,000 workers let go in Microsoft's layoff blitz, less than half were at Xbox specifically.
