

The
industry
is
once
again
reeling
from
another
round
of
layoffs
at
Microsoft,
which
has
deeply
impacted
the
Xbox
brand.
Now,
we’ve
learned
of
another
casualty
from
Romero
Games,
the
studio
co-founded
by
DOOM
co-creator
John
Romero
and
his
wife
Brenda
Romero.
Romero’s
initial
statement
left
did
not
mention
Xbox
or
Microsoft,
simply
stating
that
their
publishing
partner
had
pulled
funding,
resulting
in
their
game
having
to
be
cancelled
” “along
with
several
other
unannounced
projects
at
other
studios”.
The
timing
strongly
implied
that
the
cause
was
the
layoffs
and
restructuring
at
Xbox,
and
this
has
since
been
confirmed
by
several
employees
posting
on
LinkedIn.
Hard
surface
artist Christoph
Redl,
senior
3D
character
artist Conor
Jordan,
and
senior
producer Emily
Winters
all
stated
outright
that
it
was
the
layoffs
at
Xbox
that
resulted
in
not
only
the
cancellation
of
the
in-development
shooter,
but
that
also
led
to
them
losing
their
jobs
as
well.
Other
now
former
employees
worryingly
refer
to
Romero
Games
as
shutting
down
in
their
social
media
posts.
Advertisements
“the
mass
Microsoft
layoff
effectively
cancelled
funding
for
Romero
Games
and
as
a
result
the
whole
team
was
laid
off,”
said
UI
artist
Ana
Mitrovic
on
LinkedIn.
Sadbh
Flanagan and Eric
Wong,
both
artists
at
Romero
Games, talked
about
the
studio
closing
in
their
posts.
However,
Romero
Games
themselves
has
not
officially
announced
their
closure,
simply
saying
they
are
“currently
evaluating
next
steps
and
working
quickly
to
support
our
team.”
“This
was
a
strategic
decision
made
at
a
high
level
within
the
publisher,
well
above
our
visibility
or
control,”
Romero
said.
“We
deeply
wish
there
had
been
something,
anything,
we
could
have
done
to
prevent
this
outcome.
This
absolutely
isn’t
a
reflection
of
our
team’s
work,
performance,
or
the
quality
of
the
project
itself.
We
hit
every
milestone
on
time,
every
time,
consistently
received
high
praise,
and
easily
passed
all
our
internal
gates.
We
are
incredibly
proud
of
the
work
being
done,
and
of
the
talented
team
behind
it.
The
best
we’ve
worked
with.”
Romero
Games
was
founded
in
2014
and
has
over
100
employees,
according
to
its
website.
It
has
published
four
games
since
2014,
two
of
which
(Sigil
and
Sigil
2)
are
based
on
DOOM
which
Romero
co-created.
They
were
later
added
to
DOOM
officially.
Given
Romero’s
connection
to
DOOM
and
the
fact
that
Xbox
now
owns
the
DOOM
IP,
I
don’t
think
it’s
a
stretch
to
say
that
Romero
Games
was
working
on
something
DOOM
related.
Hopefully,
the
company
can
survive
this
closure,
but
I’m
not
sure.
Romero
Games
hasn’t
released
anything
that
has
found
much
commercial
success
and
I
can’t
find
any
information
on
investors
etc.
so
the
studio
has
likely
been
riding
on
Romero’s
own
money
for
over
a
decade.