John Romero’s New Project Loses Funding

John Romero, Romero Games, xbox

In what’s proving to be a tough week for the videogame industry following Microsoft’s announcement of thousands of job cuts and project cancellations, sadly there is another project that now faces serious risks.

Yesterday, we brought you the news that Everwild is cancelled at Rare following a long hiatus from public appearance.

Furthermore, the excellent-looking Perfect Dark reboot was canned by Microsoft alongside the shutdown of studio, The Initiative, which was setup to create the game.

Regrettably, we have news of further job losses and potential game cancellation. Creator of Doom, John Romero’s studio Romero Games Ltd. announced via X / Twitter today that their “publisher has canceled funding”. The statement went on to say “This was a strategic decision made at a high level with the publisher, well above our visibility or control.”.

Whilst there is nothing official to completely pin Xbox down as the funder of the project, this is likely the case. Layoffs were made at Romero’s studio in the wake of Xbox’s project changes. Christoph Redl, now former Head Surface Artist at Romero Games Limited confirmed he’d lost his position due to the Xbox layoffs:

Unfortunately, due to the recent Xbox layoffs, I’ve lost my position at Romero Games.

I’m now actively looking for new opportunities as a Prop Artist, Hard Surface Artist, or 3D Artist.
I'm open to both in-house and remote roles and excited to bring my skills to a new team. https://t.co/7vhj4bZ10b
— Christoph Redl (@christophredl94) July 3, 2025

Romero followed up on the statement himself saying “These are the best people I’ve ever worked with, and I’m sorry to say that our game studio were also affected.”.

Whilst we didn’t really know much at all about the project, it was expected to be a new IP shooter using Unreal Engine 5. The studio’s website explicitly states: “Romero Games makes FPS games”.

In what must be a slightly bitter pill for Romero to swallow, Microsoft (Xbox) now owns id studios who own the IP for Doom. Doom is one the industry’s stalwart franchises with The Dark Ages only having released two months ago _ if you’re yet to play the game, please do check out our stellar review.

Sadly, it is likely that more industry fatalities will be unraveled in the coming days. Stick with Gamer Social Club as we bring you all of the news as it breaks.

Meanwhile, let us know in the comments below which of the Xbox Games Studios cancellations you’re most dissapointed with.