UPDATE: A Romero Games employee has claimed that Microsoft’s decision to pull funding from the studio’s in-development project has led to the entirety of the studio being laid off.
“Today I found out our whole studio is being let go because of the layoffs at Microsoft,” the staff member wrote via a post on LinkedIn.
“A very sad day,” wrote another employee impacted by layoffs. “It breaks my heart to say that Romero Games fell victim to the 9,100 Microsoft layoffs today. The best team I’ve ever worked with and my dream job gone just like that. It really was a great project and it’s hard to process that it’s over. It’s nothing less than tragic.”
More than a dozen Romero Games employees have now publicly stated they have been impacted by the layoffs and are now looking for work, according to LinkedIn profiles reviewed by IGN. Romero Games formally announced its funding had been pulled just hours ago, as detailed below.
ORIGINAL STORY: Romero Games, the studio founded by Doom co-creator John Romero and Brenda Romero, has said it has been left “heartbroken” after discovering that funding for its next project has been pulled, reportedly as part of Microsoft’s latest cuts, leaving the game and its team at risk.
In a statement, studio director Brenda Romero said the company’s publisher and financial partner confirmed last night it was walking away from the project “along with several other unannounced projects at other studios.”
A separate post on social media, a now-former Romero Games employee stated that they are now out of work at the developer “due to the recent Xbox layoffs.” IGN has contacted Microsoft for comment.
The news comes just hours after Microsoft’s latest round of mass layoffs impacted numerous internal Xbox studios, resulting in the cancellation of multiple projects including Everwild and Perfect Dark, as well as other, unannounced titles that Microsoft had been funding.
“This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control,” Romero stated. “We deeply wish there had been something, anything, we could have done to prevent this outcome.”
Romero suggested that the publisher’s decision had come as a surprise, as Romero Games had “hit every milestone on time, every time, consistently received high priase, and easily passed all our internal gates”.
For now, Romero Games said it was “currently evaluating next steps and working quickly to support our team”, and asked for anyone with “any opportunities or ways you can help our incredible team” to “please reach out.”
“These people are the best people I’ve ever worked with,” John Romero himself said, sharing the news via social media. “I’m sorry to say that our game and our studio were also affected.”
Romero Games’ recent projects include 2019’s Sigil and its 2023 sequel Sigil 2, as well as mafia strategy game Empire of Sin, launched in 2020.
Little is known of what Romero Games had been working on for the past few years, other than it was a new first-person shooter made with Unreal Engine 5. Back in July 2022, the company said it was expanding to work on the project after securing funding.
“It’s a new dawn for Romero Games,” the studio said at the time. “We’re working with a major publisher to develop John Romero’s next shooter: an all-new FPS with an original, new IP.”
Image credit: Shane Anthony Sinclair/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
