John Romero's New Shooter Project Canceled Due to Microsoft's Restructuring
Well, this is a bummer. It looks like John Romero's (you know, the guy who basically invented the FPS genre with Doom!) new shooter project is no more. Apparently, after the recent wave of layoffs at Microsoft, the funding for the game got pulled. Ouch!
Romero Games, his studio, released a statement saying that their publisher (which, let's be real, was probably Microsoft) canned the funding. They said it was totally out of their hands, which is understandable. These things happen, especially when big companies are restructuring. From what I understand, the game was supposed to be a brand-new shooter based on an original idea, built using Unreal Engine 5. Sounds pretty awesome, right? It's a shame we won't get to see it.
The studio is understandably heartbroken. Brenda Romero, John's wife and the CEO, mentioned how they wished they could have done something to prevent this. She also made it clear that this wasn't because of the team's work. Apparently, they were hitting all their milestones and getting great feedback. It's just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess.
It's not just Romero Games that's been affected. Microsoft's layoffs have hit a bunch of studios, including Zenimax, King, Turn 10, and Raven Software. There are even rumors floating around that Rare's Everwild has been canned, along with the Perfect Dark reboot and an unannounced MMORPG at Zenimax. That's a lot of projects biting the dust!
It's always sad to see talented developers lose their jobs and projects get cancelled, but hopefully, Romero and his team will bounce back with something even better. I, for one, am eager to see what they come up with next!
Source: EuroGamer