LogInAllegedly, as many as 100 individuals were rendered unemployed.
UPD: Despite losing its publisher and the entire production team, Romero Games hasn't been shut down, according to the studio's official statement.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Following a "major publisher" – believed by many to be Microsoft – pulling funding from Romero Games, the game development studio founded by DOOM co-creator John Romero and his wife Brenda has allegedly been shut down entirely, with more than 100 individuals – the studio's entire team – rendered unemployed as a result.
The news of the entire Romero Games team being terminated was first broken by Leslie Stowe, the studio's former Technical Shader Artist and one of those affected. In her LinkedIn post, she stated that the "whole studio is being let go because of the layoffs at Microsoft," referring to the recent wave of job cuts at the tech giant that impacted around 9,000 employees and devastated at least 13 studios, including Romero Games.
Later, Leslie's account was corroborated by The Journal, which reported that the entire Romero Games team – numbering over 100 people – has been let go without any prior warning, citing an anonymous ex-employee.
"We had meetings with the publisher the day before this happened, there was no mention of it," the former staff member shared. "We were being told we were making great progress. So this came completely out of the blue. It seemed so far away for us. The title was pretty well developed at the time. We're trying to find other ways of funding the project. But for now, it's completely closed, and the studio is closed."
Additionally, the closure was seemingly confirmed by Brenda Romero herself, who shared a statement with the outlet saying that the decision was made at a high level within the publisher, beyond Romero Games' visibility and control.
"This absolutely isn't a reflection of our team's work, performance, or the quality of the project itself," she stated. "We hit every milestone on time, every time. We're heartbroken that it's come to this."
Please note that at the moment, the studio itself hasn't issued any formal announcements about its shutdown. Provided Leslie Stowe's and The Journal's reports are correct, this would mark the closure of the eighth out of nine game development studios founded or co-founded by John Romero, leaving only id Software as the surviving success.
In its nearly ten-year run, Romero Games developed two standalone titles, Gunman Taco Truck and Empire of Sin, along with two unofficial DOOM mods later added to the game by Bethesda, SIGIL and SIGIL II.
Unfortunately, none of these became hits – Empire of Sin was widely reviewed as mediocre by both gamers and journalists, and Gunman Taco Truck peaked at just 19 players on Steam – not 19 thousand, mind you, just nineteen. On social media, some have speculated that this lack of notable releases in nearly a decade is the main reason why Microsoft execs have decided to cut funding to Romero Games, but without statements from RG or Xbox, this remains purely conjecture.
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