Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake: John Romero was instrumental in shaping the genre. Now he’s making another first-person shooter.
John Romero is returning to the genre that is inseparable from his name: first-person shooters. After his studio Romero Games last released Empire of Sin, a gangster strategy game with mixed reviews, it now announced a new shooter. So the creator of Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake is releasing a new shooter game.
What kind of shooter? Well, a first-person shooter. Setting, direction, release? We can’t answer all that yet. What we do know: It will be a completely new brand, will be released in collaboration with a major publisher and will rely on the modern Unreal Engine 5.
Apparently the new game is still in a very early phase, because Romero Games is currently looking for reinforcements on all fronts of the development work.
Exciting news! We’re hiring for new FPS! https://t.co/3t6n6Oe2yP pic.twitter.com/bJ8Jd8lxWM
– Romero Games Ltd (@romerogamesltd) July 19, 2022
Which major publisher? By choosing Unreal Engine 5, Epic Games as a publisher is within the realm of possibility. Epic has a similarly long history in the shooter genre with Unreal. But this is by no means confirmed.
Tousendassa John Romero
As founders of id Software, John Romero, Tom Hall and John and Adrian Carmack created the classic first-person shooters Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, among others, starting in 1991. However, the partnership did not last too long.
Creative differences caused the departure of John Romero after the 1996 release of Quake, which led to further terminations of important developers. Over a decade later, in 2009, id Software was bought out by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media.
Thousand-ass John Romero
As founders of id Software, John Romero, Tom Hall and John and Adrian Carmack created the classic first-person shooters Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, among others, starting in 1991. However, the partnership did not last too long.
Creative differences caused the departure of John Romero after the 1996 release of Quake, which led to further terminations of important developers. Over a decade later, in 2009, id Software was bought out by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media.
In the years following his departure from id, Romero founded other studios with Ion Storm and Monkeystone Games, was active as the chairman of an e-sports league and as a guest editor at the games magazine Retro Gamer.
Meanwhile, Romero’s attempt to develop another shooter together with Adrian Carmack failed in 2016. Blackroom was supposed to be financed via Kickstarter, but after a few days it raised barely a quarter of the estimated sum, whereupon the campaign was cancelled. After that, nothing more was heard from Blackroom.
Finally, in 2015, he founded his current studio Romero Games, which most recently released Empire of Sin. And is now working on a new first-person shooter.
How do you feel about the news of a new shooter by John Romero? Are you excited about it or are you more sceptical? Let us know in the comments!
