Latest news with #BrendaRomero
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Romero Games says reports of its death are greatly exaggerated
It appeared that Romero Games might have shuttered as a consequence of the sweeping job cuts at Microsoft last week, but the studio is still alive and kicking. In to a post on Bluesky, the company clarified that its latest project is currently canceled after its funding was pulled. The post doesn't name the publisher due to confidentiality agreements, but it sure seems like Microsoft was the purse behind the new game. Losing the money hasn't also meant that Romero Games is closing its doors, but the next steps will be difficult ones for the team. "We now have to reassess the entire staffing of our studio," the post reads. The canceled project was billed on Romero Games' website as a first-person shooter with a brand new, original intellectual property. It may eventually find new life with a new backer. "We've been contacted by several publishers interested in helping us bring the game across the finish line, and we're currently evaluating those opportunities," the company said. Romero Games was founded in 2014 by storied game designers John and Brenda Romero.
Time of India
05-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Everwild, Perfect Dark and other games that are getting cancelled after latest Microsoft layoffs
Microsoft has announced substantial layoffs impacting as many as 9,000 employees across its various divisions, also impacting its Xbox division, with numerous studio closures, game cancellations and widespread layoffs. The exact number of affected Xbox employees remains undisclosed. Reports indicate that over 70 staff members at Turn 10 Studios, the developer behind Forza Motorsport, will be let go, affecting the "vast majority" of the studio's personnel. Major game projects face setbacks The impact on Xbox's game development ecosystem is severe, with multiple studios and projects reportedly hit: Rare and Everwild: British developer Rare has seen its highly anticipated game, Everwild, canceled, as per Gamespot. Announced in 2019, the project was reportedly in development for a decade and underwent a reboot, but ultimately failed to find the right direction. The Initiative and Perfect Dark: One of Microsoft's newer studios, The Initiative, is reportedly closing, leading to the cancellation of its first game, a new Perfect Dark. Reports from May 2024 had indicated the game was in "rough shape." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Top 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo A New ZeniMax MMORPG: A new multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) from The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios, reportedly codenamed "Blackbird" and in development since 2018, has also been canceled. Longtime executive Matt Firor is also departing the company, the report said. Romero Games: Funding for a new, unannounced game from Romero Games, headed by John and Brenda Romero, has been canceled by its publisher, believed to be Microsoft. Brenda Romero's social media post indicated a "strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher," with an affected staffer directly attributing their job loss to "the recent Xbox layoffs." Microsoft job cuts result in widespread layoffs across key game developers Beyond game cancellations and studio closures, numerous other developers integral to Xbox's portfolio have reportedly faced significant staffing reductions: Turn 10 Studios: The Forza Motorsport developer was reportedly hit hard, with nearly 50% of its staff let go, though the exact number remains unconfirmed. Raven Software: An esteemed Call of Duty co-development studio, responsible for Black Ops 6 (2024) and Black Ops 7 (2025), was affected. High Moon Studios: A long-time Call of Duty co-developer, known for its contributions to Call of Duty: Warzone, has also been impacted. Sledgehammer Games: Another prominent Call of Duty co-developer, Sledgehammer Games, has faced layoffs as part of the wider Microsoft cuts. Blizzard and Warcraft Rumble: Blizzard has announced that support for Warcraft Rumble will cease in its current form, with no new content added. While some employees will shift roles, as many as 100 people are reportedly being laid off. Halo Studios: The development team formerly known as 343 Industries, currently working on multiple upcoming Halo titles, was also affected by the widespread layoffs. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Redundancies at Romero Games after project funding cancelled
About 100 jobs are to be lost after Galway based developer Romero Games lost funding for a major project. The news is widely reported to be linked to cuts this week at Microsoft which this week announced some 9,000 job losses worldwide, a move that is understood to have had significant repercussions for its Xbox operation and the funding of a number of its projects. Company filings indicate Romero Games, which was founded in 2014 by award winning developer John Romero and Brenda Romero, employed 42 people, including its directors, at the end of last year but the company website suggests it has over 100 developers on its books. Various postings on LinkedIn on Friday suggested all had been let go while the company told The Irish Times said it was 'evaluating a number of alternative options for the game' at the heart of the funding cut. READ MORE In a social media post on Thursday morning, Brenda Romero said the company had learned on Wednesday evening that 'our publisher has cancelled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects at other studios'. 'This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the studio, well above our visibility or control. We deeply wish there had been something, anything, we could have done to prevent the outcome.' [ Microsoft to cut some Irish jobs in global cost-reduction push Opens in new window ] She said the decision had been made despite the company meeting all of its targets and 'consistently received high praise' for the work completed on the project. She said the founders were 'heartbroken' by the news and said they were supporting employees trying to find new jobs. Though the company, which is known for its highly successful first person shooter (FPS) games, suggested it was not in a position to name the funder which had withdrawn support due to a confidentiality agreement, it was reported by industry figures writing on social media and trade press to be Xbox. How the wealthy are buying up land to avoid inheritance tax Listen | 22:03 Not all of the jobs being lost appeared to be based in Ireland, the company indicates on its website that it is open to employees working remotely and some of those posting on LinkedIn about having been let go, appeared to be based abroad but some of the redundancies do appear to be local. The company did not clarify the precise number of roles involved when asked but the Financial Services Union (FSU), which has members in the sector through its Game Workers Unite Ireland branch, put the figure at up to 100 when subcontractors were included. The game development sector has grown hugely over the past decade but the FSU said earlier this week that lay-offs were becoming an increasingly regular feature although the scale of scale of the cuts at Xbox, which had purchased a number of major developers in recent years, seemed to come as a surprise for of those impacted this week.
Engadget
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Xbox was funding Romero Games' new game, but layoffs have left the project in crisis
Microsoft was rocked by more than 9,000 job cuts this week. A significant number have come from its gaming division, resulting in the closure of multiple game studios and the cancellation of numerous in-development projects at Xbox and its contracted studios. We've already learned that Microsoft has closed the studio that was developing the much-anticipated Perfect Dark reboot, and Rare's Everwild has also been sunsetted. And now Romero Games — the studio headed up by Doom creator and veteran developer John Romero — is another major casualty of the sweeping cuts. The news was initially confirmed in a statement signed by Brenda Romero and posted on X. 'Last night, we learned that our publisher has canceled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects at other studios,' it said. "This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control." It went on to say that the studio was powerless to change the outcome, and that the decision was not reflective of the quality of work its team has produced. Ireland-based Romero Games is not owned by Microsoft, but it appears the company's financial support was crucial to keeping the studio alive — a fact that wasn't publicly known until the shutdown occurred. IGN is now reporting that the entire Romero Games workforce has been let go, and many Romero Games employees confirm on Linkedin that they no longer have jobs. According to the company website, Romero Games was founded by John and Brenda Romero in 2014, and had more than 100 developers on its staff. Its most recent release was 2023's Sigil II , the unofficial sixth episode in the Doom series, which John Romero co-created in 1993 with id Software, the studio he also co-founded. The upcoming game was described by Romero Games as an "all-new FPS with an original, new IP working with a major publisher."
Metro
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Xbox cuts have killed a studio Microsoft didn't even own
The unidentified publisher behind John Romero's next project has turned out to be Microsoft… which means yet more bad news in terms of layoffs. There is no underselling now awful the recent wave of layoffs within Microsoft and its Xbox division have been. Combined with previous redundancies, it's estimated more than 6,000 Xbox employees have lost their jobs in the last two years. This has also led to several game cancellations, most recently Rare's Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot. In addition, Perfect Dark studio The Initiative, which was formed in 2018 to helm 'AAAA' projects, has been shut down without getting to release a single game. Many details are still not know but at least one other studio has suffered as a result, and it's not even one Microsoft owns. it's Romero Games, which was founded by industry icons John and Brenda Romero. Earlier today, Romero Games issued a statement about how it has had to cancel its next game, a first person shooter based on an original IP, after the publisher it had partnered with withdrew its funding. 'Last night, we learned that our publisher has cancelled funding for our game, along with several other unannounced projects at other studios,' reads the statement written by Brenda Romero. 'This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control. We deeply wish there had been something, anything we could have done to prevent this outcome,' it continues, adding that this 'isn't a reflection of our team's work, performance, or the quality of the project itself.' Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The untitled game was announced in 2022 with no trailer or even screenshots, with Romero Games only saying it had teamed up with a 'major publisher' for it. Given when the cancellation was announced, it's pretty obvious the publisher was Microsoft and that detail has been confirmed by artist Christoph Redl, who on X says he lost his position at Romero Games 'due to the recent Xbox layoffs.' Apparently, he's not the only one as, per VGC, an unidentified employee says Romero Games has shut down entirely, with others corroborating that it's a consequence of Microsoft's cuts. 'Today I found out our whole studio is being let go because of the layoffs at Microsoft,' says one. Another calls the cuts, 'massive, sudden and [an] unexpected hit on a project that was innovative, going strong and most importantly fun.' As a reminder, John Romero is considered one of the grandfathers of the first person shooter genre, for his work on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake in the 1990s at id Software (which, via Bethesda, is now a Microsoft subsidiary). His wife, Brenda, is known for her work as a designer on the role-playing series Wizardy and is regarded as one of the most influential women in the games industry. More Trending The two founded Romero Games in 2015, which was based in Galway, Ireland and went on to launch five games, including an unofficial Doom expansion called Sigil and gangster strategy game Empire Of Sin. The studio must've been hanging by a thread if losing Microsoft's funding was enough to tank it, which means even more people out of work (and potentially the industry altogether) and another damning indictment of the current state of the industry. John Romero is one of the earliest examples of a 'celebrity' game developer, and to this day is still one of the very few whose name is known by most gamers – or at least those of a certain age. The industry is already struggling to bring in and cultivate fresh, new talent and gaming's future only stands to become even bleaker if companies like Microsoft have lost interest in banking on famous names like the Romeros. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Xbox cuts hundreds of jobs – but it's okay, profits are up and no execs are affected MORE: Xbox boss Phil Spencer keeps his job as fans call for him to resign MORE: Xbox hardware 'is dead' says former Microsoft exec in scathing YouTube video
