Romero Games signs a new publisher for its shooter with a 16-person team
John Romero says the studio owns all of the IP from the Xbox-funded project, and is reusing that work in a redesigned, smaller-scope first-person shooter.
Romero Games has a new publisher for the first-person shooter Xbox stopped funding last year, but the team building it is now 15 to 16 people, down from about 110. John Romero shared the update in an interview with VGC, covered by PC Gamer on October 30, and said the original version of the game cannot be finished at that size.
From 110 developers to five, then back to 16
Romero said the studio was effectively defunded in 2025, kept staff on for as long as it could while looking for money, and eventually shrank to five people. Romero Games, which he runs with veteran designer Brenda Romero, is independent: Xbox was the publisher, not the owner. That turned out to matter. Romero says the studio kept full ownership of the name, the IP, the art and the code.
So rather than abandon the work, he designed a new game around it. It is still a shooter, but he describes everything around the shooting as new, with the existing assets giving the team a head start. He was clear that the old 110-person design is gone and will not ship in that form.
A publisher with "zero creative goals"
The deal came through a contact Romero already knew. He would not name the publisher or give an announcement date, but he praised the terms: the partner, he said, has no creative demands and is happy to publish whatever the team makes. He called that the perfect deal and said the project is scoped for its current headcount.
Romero also argued that small teams suit him, since they can change direction in hours. His track record backs that up. Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom came from small id Software teams, and his 2019 Doom episode Sigil was a near-solo effort. The much larger Quake strained id, and Daikatana, made with his biggest team, became his most divisive game.
The cost
The upside does not erase the losses. PC Gamer counts about 95 developers who lost their jobs when the Xbox funding ended, part of Microsoft's wider cuts that have reshaped its publishing slate.
What happens next
The game has no title, platforms or release window yet, and Romero would not say when the reveal will come. For shooter fans, the next milestone is that announcement and the name of the publisher behind it.
Source: PC Gamer; VGC (John Romero interview).
