Romero Games finds new publisher for Xbox-dropped shooter, cuts scope to 16 staff

Romero Games has a new publisher for the shooter Xbox dropped, and the game it is making is not the one Xbox funded. The studio went from 110 developers to five, and now employs roughly 15 to 16 people. ¹²

John Romero confirmed the deal in an interview, saying he contacted someone he knew and they struck an agreement. He declined to name the publisher or give an announcement date. ²

The timeline is short. Romero Games lost its funding in July 2025, when the publisher, later identified as Microsoft, pulled out during a wave of layoffs that hit roughly 9,000 people, according to CNBC. ³² The studio said at the time that the decision was made far above its visibility or control. ³ It later denied it was closing. ²

What changed

The original game was built for 110 people, and Romero says that version will not be finished. ² The studio owns the name, the IP, the art, the graphics and the code, so it designed a new, smaller game to reuse as much as possible. ²

Romero described it as a complete redesign of a different game, with characters, art, code assets and weapons carried over. Shooters share a lot of common code, he said, which gave the team a head start. ²¹ Last December, he put a figure on the old project: “50 million worth of game” that pieces could be pulled from. ⁴

Staffing has partly recovered. Romero said 10 people came back, the leads of the former sub-teams, and that the current size is likely where the studio stays. ² Around 15 developers were on staff as of October 2026. ¹ The game is scoped for that headcount. ²

What it means for the studio

The studio’s shape is the bigger story than the deal. Romero says he prefers the small team because he can design by hand in Unreal Editor instead of sitting in meetings, and that the team is flat, with no producers. ² Asked whether he would work with a large publisher again, he said no. ²

That is a firm stance from someone whose last big-publisher project ended in a canceled build and a headcount of five. The studio now owns a smaller game, a smaller payroll and, by its own account, more control.

What we know: a new publisher exists, the game is redesigned, and the team is about 15 to 16 people. What we do not know: the publisher’s name, the announcement date, the release window, or the game’s title. Romero did say the shooter is surrounded by new ideas, and that the team is happy with how it is going. ²

The outlook: the next data point is the publisher announcement, whenever that arrives.

Our read: Xbox’s cancellation cost the studio 105 jobs on paper and left it with assets it could still use. The new deal does not undo that, but it shows the work was not wasted. A 16-person shooter built on reused parts is a smaller bet than a 110-person one, and for a studio that owns everything in it, perhaps a safer one. It is also a much quieter comeback than the original plan. ⁵

Footnotes

1. Polygon, “Doom Creator John Romero Revives Xbox-Canceled Game At New Publisher”. Retrieved November 1, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. VGC, “John Romero confirms his axed Xbox game has a new publisher and he’s rehired some staff”. Retrieved November 1, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

3. GamesIndustry.biz, “Romero Games cancels upcoming FPS title after publisher pulls funding”. Retrieved November 1, 2026. ↩ ↩²

4. GamesIndustry.biz, “Romero Games working on smaller shooter that borrows from its cancelled project”. Retrieved November 1, 2026. ↩

5. PC Gamer, “Romero Games has a new publisher for the game Xbox abandoned, but its 110-person team is now just 16 devs: ‘I needed to basically design a new game that could use as much of that stuff as possible’”. Retrieved November 1, 2026. ↩