Romero Games shares hope for the future of their canceled FPS project

Today, Romero Games has shared an update clarifying some of the chaos that has ensued since the Xbox and Microsoft layoffs, game cancellations, and studio closures. The studio’s co-founder, John Romero, is best known for his work with id Software, a studio where he was also a co-founder. While at id, Romero worked on games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Quake, among many others. Romero Games announced in July 2022 that the studio is working on a “triple-A FPS” within Unreal Engine 5. This project has now lost its funding and was canceled as a result of recent issues with Microsoft. However, the studio has confirmed that the project is not gone and that several interested publishers have contacted the team.

The future for Romero Games looks bright as the team shares that several publishers are interested

The post shared on social media aimed to clarify several rumors that have been circulating on the internet since late last week. The post confirms that funding was pulled and the game was canceled, but “due to confidentiality agreements, [they] cannot disclose the publisher’s identity, though some may infer it from public information.” This is not an easy position to be in, and given the thousands of Microsoft employees laid off last week, it’s easy to jump to conclusions. Huge games shown at last year’s summer showcase, like Perfect Dark, are canceled, along with the studio The Initiative being closed. Other studios, such as Rare and Zenimax Online, have also had games canceled. But fortunately, Romero Games may have some good news.

In their statement, the team clarifies that “Romero Games is not closed, and we’re doing everything in our power to ensure that it does not come to that. Any suggestion otherwise is factually incorrect. Indeed, we were in the studio today to discuss next steps with the team.” A sudden lack of funding can be a huge problem for any size team, but hopefully, the team won’t have to wait much longer.

In the final bullet of the statement, Romero Games shared that they have “been contacted by several publishers interested in helping us bring the game across the finish line, and we’re currently evaluating those opportunities.” Hopefully, one of those interested publishers works out for Romero Games. This likely won’t be the case for many other canceled projects, such as the Perfect Dark title or Everwild, which are still tied to existing Xbox Game Studios and likely couldn’t be scooped up by an outside funder.

On social media, responses showed overwhelming support for Romero Games, with one user writing, “Show me the game and I might fund it myself.” Most other users hoped that one of the publishing deals would work out, but many also called out Microsoft and Xbox for making this mistake. One user wrote, “Make Microsoft execs regret this… Success is the best revenge.”

With a long history in the industry, especially with such iconic franchises like Doom, it would not be surprising to see something work out for Romero Games soon. Since they’ve been working on this FPS for a few years now, it could even be close to time for a reveal trailer. However, this is all still speculative. I hope that everyone at Romero Games feels comfortable in their position and that the team finds a reliable publishing partner to help them complete this project.

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