Cliff Notes – Xbox cuts have killed a studio Microsoft didn’t even own
- Microsoft has confirmed it was the unidentified publisher that withdrew funding from Romero Games, leading to the cancellation of their first-person shooter project.
- The layoffs within Microsoft’s Xbox division have resulted in over 6,000 job losses in the past two years, impacting multiple studios and leading to game cancellations.
- Romero Games, founded by industry veterans John and Brenda Romero, has reportedly shut down entirely due to the financial fallout from Microsoft’s cuts, raising concerns about the industry’s future.
Xbox cuts have killed a studio Microsoft didn’t even own
The unidentified publisher behind John Romero’s next project has turned out to be Microsoft… which means yet more bad news in terms of layoffs.
There is no underselling now awful the recent wave of layoffs within Microsoft and its Xbox division have been. Combined with previous redundancies, it’s estimated more than 6,000 Xbox employees have lost their jobs in the last two years.
As a result you’ll likely never get to see what the studio was working on next.
This has also led to several game cancellations, most recently Rare’s Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot. In addition, Perfect Dark studio The Initiative, which was formed in 2018 to helm ‘AAAA’ projects, has been shut down without getting to release a single game.
Many details are still not know but at least one other studio has suffered as a result, and it’s not even one Microsoft owns. it’s Romero Games, which was founded by industry icons John and Brenda Romero.
Earlier today, Romero Games issued a statement about how it has had to cancel its next game, a first person shooter based on an original IP, after the publisher it had partnered with withdrew its funding.
‘Last night, we learned that our publisher has cancelled funding for our game, along with several other unannounced projects at other studios,’ reads the statement written by Brenda Romero.
‘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,’ it continues, adding that this ‘isn’t a reflection of our team’s work, performance, or the quality of the project itself.’
Cancellation was announced
The untitled game was announced in 2022 with no trailer or even screenshots, with Romero Games only saying it had teamed up with a ‘major publisher’ for it.
Given when the cancellation was announced, it’s pretty obvious the publisher was Microsoft and that detail has been confirmed by artist Christoph Redl, who on X says he lost his position at Romero Games ‘due to the recent Xbox layoffs.’
Apparently, he’s not the only one as, per VGC, an unidentified employee says Romero Games has shut down entirely, with others corroborating that it’s a consequence of Microsoft’s cuts.
‘Today I found out our whole studio is being let go because of the layoffs at Microsoft,’ says one. Another calls the cuts, ‘massive, sudden and [an] unexpected hit on a project that was innovative, going strong and most importantly fun.’
Grandfathers of the first person shooter genre
As a reminder, John Romero is considered one of the grandfathers of the first person shooter genre, for his work on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake in the 1990s at id Software (which, via Bethesda, is now a Microsoft subsidiary).
His wife, Brenda, is known for her work as a designer on the role-playing series Wizardy and is regarded as one of the most influential women in the games industry.
The two founded Romero Games in 2015, which was based in Galway, Ireland and went on to launch five games, including an unofficial Doom expansion called Sigil and gangster strategy game Empire Of Sin.
The studio must’ve been hanging by a thread if losing Microsoft’s funding was enough to tank it, which means even more people out of work (and potentially the industry altogether) and another damning indictment of the current state of the industry.
John Romero is one of the earliest examples of a ‘celebrity’ game developer, and to this day is still one of the very few whose name is known by most gamers – or at least those of a certain age.
The industry is already struggling to bring in and cultivate fresh, new talent and gaming’s future only stands to become even bleaker if companies like Microsoft have lost interest in banking on famous names like the Romeros.
It’s currently unclear if the Romeros will start up a new studio or go elsewhere.