Romero Video games, a studio lead by trade veteran and Doom designer John Romero, has had funding for its upcoming undertaking lower by the writer. Whereas the corporate’s official assertion doesn’t title the writer, a former artist at Romero Video games, Christoph Redl, wrote on social media that they’d misplaced their place on the firm “on account of Xbox layoffs”.
Many former Romero Video games workers members have taken to LinkedIn to announce that they’re in search of work. Artist Leslie Stowe wrote, “In the present day I discovered our entire studio is being let go due to the layoffs at Microsoft” fuelling hypothesis that it’s not simply mass layoffs however a studio and sport closure. Nonetheless, different posts don’t point out this, and it’s unconfirmed at this level.
Yesterday (July 2, 2025), Microsoft laid off round 9,000 members of workers and shut down a number of studios and initiatives, together with Uncommon’s Everwild, the Excellent Darkish reboot, in addition to The Initiative, the studio that was engaged on it, and a brand new MMORPG from the developer of Elder Scrolls On-line. Different losses have been felt with Sweet Crush developer King dropping round 10% of its workers, or round 200 folks, and Forza Motorsport developer Flip 10 reportedly dropping round half of its workforce.
Romero Video games is an impartial studio, however like most impartial studios, it depends on funding from publishers to assist carry its video games to life. The studio is now in search of different types of financing and claims that the elimination of funds is thru no fault of the studio, with the official assertion studying: “This totally isn’t a mirrored image of the workforce’s work, efficiency, or high quality of the undertaking itself. We hit each milestone on time, each time, and persistently obtained excessive reward, and simply handed all inner gates.”
The studio introduced that it was engaged on a brand new AAA FPS IP made with Unreal Engine 5, although particulars of the sport had been but to be shared with the general public. The corporate’s assertion additionally means that Romero Video games isn’t the one studio affected by these writer cuts. It says: “We realized that our writer has canceled funding for our sport together with a number of different unannounced initiatives from different studios. This was a strategic resolution made at a excessive degree inside the writer properly above our visibility and our management.”
The assertion ends by claiming the studio is “evaluating subsequent steps” and asks readers “if of any alternatives or methods you may assist our unbelievable workforce, please attain out.”
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