Romero Games, a studio lead by industry veteran and Doom designer John Romero, has had funding for its upcoming project cut by the publisher. While the company’s official statement does not name the publisher, a former artist at Romero Games, Christoph Redl, wrote on social media that they had lost their position at the company “due to Xbox layoffs”.
Many former Romero Games staff members have taken to LinkedIn to announce that they are looking for work. Artist Leslie Stowe wrote, “Today I found out our whole studio is being let go because of the layoffs at Microsoft” fuelling speculation that it’s not just mass layoffs but a studio and game closure. However, Romero has issued a statement to confirm its not closing.
Yesterday (July 2, 2025), Microsoft laid off around 9,000 members of staff and shut down several studios and projects, including Rare’s Everwild, the Perfect Dark reboot, as well as The Initiative, the studio that was working on it, and a new MMORPG from the developer of Elder Scrolls Online. Other losses have been felt with Candy Crush developer King losing around 10% of its staff, or around 200 people, and Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 reportedly losing around half of its team.
Romero Games is an independent studio, but like most independent studios, it relies on funding from publishers to help bring its games to life. The studio is now looking for other forms of financing and claims that the removal of funds is through no fault of the studio, with the official statement reading: “This absolutely isn’t a reflection of the team’s work, performance, or quality of the project itself. We hit every milestone on time, every time, and consistently received high praise, and easily passed all internal gates.”
The studio announced that it was working on a new AAA FPS IP made with Unreal Engine 5, though details of the game were yet to be shared with the public. The company’s statement also suggests that Romero Games isn’t the only studio affected by these publisher cuts. It says: “We learned that our publisher has canceled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects from other studios. This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher well above our visibility and our control.”
The statement ends by claiming the studio is “evaluating next steps” and asks readers “if you know of any opportunities or ways you can help our incredible team, please reach out.”
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