Romero Games could seek a new publisher and reopen

One of the more surprising casualties from last week’s Xbox layoffs was Romero Games. Founded by DOOM creator, John Romero, the studio was not owned by Microsoft, nor had any public business ties to the company. However, it turns out that Romero Games was working on a new shooter, with the funding coming from Xbox. Now due to the cuts, Romero Games is feared to be closing down. 

While Romero Games has not named Microsoft or Xbox in any of its official statements, the company did confirm this week that it had lost publisher funding for the new First-Person Shooter it was developing. As a result, the entire team is being let go and the game has been cancelled.

As reported by VGC, one anonymous Romero Games employee gave comment on the situation, saying: “Everyone is out of a job. We had meetings with the publisher the day before this happened, there was no mention of it”.

However, it is also claimed that the studio is “trying to find other ways of funding the project”, so there is a chance that this shooter could return from the dead. In the meantime, though, the studio can’t retain its employees, so the studio would have to go through a period of rebuilding, even if it did find a new publisher to finance the game.

KitGuru Says: Romero Games had remained as a small studio for years before obtaining funding for its current projects. Then when it finally grew to a full production-sized team, that funding was snatched away. If the UE5 shooter was far along enough, they may be able to convince another publisher to push the project over the finish line. 

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