Microsoft’s Job Cuts Affect Gaming Division

Microsoft has recently undergone significant job cuts, exceeding 9,000 positions, with a substantial number of these cuts coming from its gaming division. This has resulted in the closure of multiple game studios and the cancellation of numerous in-development projects at Xbox and its contracted studios. Notably, the studio developing the highly anticipated Perfect Dark reboot has been closed, and Everwild, a project by Rare, has also been canceled.

Impact on Romero Games

The latest casualty of these sweeping cuts is Romero Games, a studio headed by Doom creator and veteran developer John Romero. The news was confirmed in a statement posted on X by Brenda Romero, where it was announced that their publisher had canceled funding for their game, along with several other unannounced projects at different studios. This decision was described as a strategic move made at a high level within the publisher, beyond the studio’s visibility or control. The statement emphasized that the studio was unable to change the outcome and that the decision did not reflect the quality of work produced by its team.

Details of the Closure

Although Romero Games is based in Ireland and not owned by Microsoft, the financial support from Microsoft was crucial for the studio’s operations, a fact that became publicly known after the shutdown. IGN has reported that the entire workforce of Romero Games has been let go, with many employees confirming their job loss on LinkedIn. According to the company’s website, Romero Games was founded in 2014 by John and Brenda Romero and had a staff of over 100 developers. The studio’s most recent release was Sigil II in 2023, an unofficial sixth episode in the Doom series, which John Romero co-created in 1993 with id Software. Romero Games was also working on an upcoming game described as an "all-new FPS with an original, new IP" in collaboration with a major publisher.