It’s been another tough week for the video game industry and the fallout from Microsoft’s layoffs led to funding cuts at John and Brenda Romero’s studio, Romero Games.
Now, following some claims the studio had completely shut its doors, Irish publication The Journal has got apparently got an official confirmation about this in a statement from Brenda Romero (thanks, Push Square).
It’s mentioned how the decision was made at a “high level” within Microsoft and well above the studio’s own “visibility and control”.
“This absolutely isn’t a reflection of our team’s work, performance or the quality of the project itself. We hit every milestone on time, every time…We’re heartbroken that it’s come to this.”
Romero Games reportedly employed 42 studio members “directly”, with its broader network for its latest project at “more than 100” people.
An “anonymous” staff member of the Galway-based studio told the source it’s been a “big shock” as the team had only had meetings with its publisher the “day before this happened”. There was also apparently no warning, and it’s further claimed there are “no remaining funds to continue operations”.
John Romero was one of the co-creators of DOOM, and the studio he co-founded with his wife went on to release multiple titles including the strategy RPG Empire of Sin for the Switch in 2020. The same developer also released SIGIL and SIGIL 2 for DOOM + DOOM II.
You can find out more about Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs as well as the impacts on Romero Games in our previous coverage and on our sibling site Pure Xbox.
