The Doom inventor John Romero loses his new shooter project due to a sudden stop in funding. His wife is publicly asking the industry for help for the affected development team.
Many of you will have heard the name John Romero before: The veteran of the games industry and co-inventor of Doom was about to shake up the genre once again with a brand new shooter brand in Unreal Engine 5.
However, this dream has come to nothing for the time being. A sudden funding freeze ended the project overnight and the entire team was thrown out of work.
Microsoft’s red pencil also hits partner studios
The bad news came out of nowhere for developer studio Romero Games: Brenda Romero, game designer, wife of John Romero and co-founder of the studio, announced the devastating news in a public statement. It was learned late last night that the publisher had canceled funding for the game:
This decision had been “strategically made at a very high level within the publisher” and was therefore far beyond the developer studio’s sphere of influence.
Especially annoying: The project was a complete success, according to its own opinion. Brenda Romero emphasizes that the team reached every milestone on time, passed every internal test and consistently received high praise for the quality of their work.
Lead level designer Sebastian Bica wrote on LinkedIn:
This is a huge, sudden and unexpected blow to a project that has been innovative, well run and above all fun. The last two plus years have been fantastic, working with everyone has been a blast and I will cherish all the shared moments and memories forever! It’s a real shame that we can’t finish the project!
Romero Games’ most famous title was Empire of Sin, you can watch the trailer for Mafia-XCOM again here:
An emotional cry for help on the net
The consequences for Romero Games are devastating: According to reports, almost the entire workforce of almost 100 employees has been laid off. Numerous developers confirmed their job losses on social networks such as LinkedIn and linked them directly to the cutbacks at Microsoft.
In the midst of the chaos, Brenda Romero made an emotional appeal to the public:
— Romero Games Ltd (@romerogamesltd) July 3, 2025
She describes the day as “extremely difficult” and the team as devastated. Many of the employees had worked together for over a decade, some for over 20 years.
In her statement, she asks the industry for support for her team: “If you hear of any opportunities or can help our incredible team in any way, please get in touch”.
What the official future holds for Romero Games is still unclear. However, the sudden loss of the main project and the numerous redundancies in a very short space of time indicate that the Irish development studio will soon be closing its doors.
