Romero Games shutting down after Microsoft cuts funding to their FPS project

Romero Games has been caught in the fallout of Microsoft’s wide-ranging cuts and layoffs that were made last week. The decision by Microsoft to pull funding for Romero’s unannounced FPS has effectively led to the closure of the studio, laying off its 42 internal employees in Galway, Ireland, and affecting a total network of around 100 developers.

In a statement last Wednesday, Brenda Romero confirmed that funding had been pulled for their project, and while not naming Xbox or Microsoft specifically, the connection was quickly made. “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.” Romero writes.

“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. We are incredibly proud of the work being done, and of the talented team behind it. The best we’ve worked with.”

Since then, there have been reports that Romero Games had had conversations with Microsoft just a day before funding was cut. Speaking to The Journal, an anonymous employee said that “Everyone is out of a job,” continuing that “We had meetings with the publisher the day before this happened, there was no mention of it.”

There is a chance that this situation can still be salvaged, though with Romero Games working under contract, they were dependent on Microsoft’s financial support for the day-to-day running of the studio. In Brenda Romero’s statement, she said that they are “evaluating next steps and working quickly to support our team”, while the anonymous employee said to The Journal that “We’re trying to find other ways of funding the project, but for now, it’s completely closed, and the studio is closed.”

Hopefully another publisher is able and willing to step in, and this could be an attractive proposition with indications that the game was already rather far along.

Romero Games was founded back in 2015 by John and Brenda Romero, making a splash with a pair of unofficial Doom continuations – Sigil and Sigil II, which were both adopted for the Doom remasters by Nightdive a few years later – which were released on either side of their prohibition era mobster strategy game Empire of Sin.

Source: The Journal