John Romero revives canceled Xbox shooter with new publisher

John Romero confirmed at Gamescom Asia on Oct. 30, 2026 that an unannounced shooter game dropped by Xbox now has a new publisher.

Microsoft pulled its publishing agreement for the unannounced shooter in July 2025 as part of a wave of layoffs across the corporation. The cuts came amid yearly rounds of layoffs at Xbox under new CEO Asha Sharma, with the reductions hitting studios and unannounced games. “You know, last year we basically got defunded, like a lot of people did,” Romero said.

Romero Games had been searching for a new publishing partner after its prior agreement ended. Xbox announced the unannounced FPS in 2022 as an all-new IP with Xbox as publisher. The project had been in development for years before Xbox cancelled it as part of the 2025 layoffs. Romero Games operates in Ireland and did not shut down despite losing the Xbox publishing deal.

The studio had been looking for a path forward after the cancellation.

The Irish studio persisted through the difficult period and ultimately secured a new publisher, bringing back laid-off staff and continuing development. Though Romero Games later denied it was closing, employees said the studio lost its entire staff after Microsoft pulled the publishing deal.

Romero Games’ team shrank from approximately 110 people to as few as five after Microsoft pulled the funding in July 2025. “We were 110 people, going down to five,” Romero said.

John Romero brought back 10 former employees, specifically the leads of the different subteams, bringing the current team to around 15 to 16 staff.

The team cannot finish the original 110-person game, so the project is a complete redesign of a totally different game that reuses existing assets. Romero Games 100% owns the name, IP, art, graphics, and code for the project. The studio’s approach of reusing assets, rescoping around a smaller team, and keeping the publisher quiet ultimately helped secure a new publishing deal.

Romero revealed in December 2025 that the team had salvaged the shooter, basically redesigning it while incorporating many elements from the original. The team redesigned the new game to accommodate its much smaller size, with some content likely cut and ambitions scaled back.

The new publisher has zero creative goals for the game and is letting Romero Games make what they want without interference. Romero described the publishing deal as “the perfect deal,” where the publisher is not steering the game in any particular direction or imposing creative goals. “The publisher we’re with right now has zero creative goals for this game,” Romero said. Romero explained that most publishers want to steer the game in a certain direction based on their specialization, but the new publisher is letting them make what they want.

Romero declined to name the new publisher or announce when Romero Games will reveal the game, citing an ongoing deal. The publisher relationship with Microsoft has not been officially confirmed by either Romero Games or Microsoft.

He described his hands-on approach to the game’s development, making every single decision and working directly in the Unreal Editor. He has worked with teams of more than 100 staff before but does not like it when he is just in meetings all day. The flat structure lets everyone contribute directly to the game’s creation. He explained that having a bunch of producers is unnecessary at their current size, and that as soon as you need a producer, the team is too big.

Right now there is no producer, which he considers ideal.

John Romero is the co-founder of id Software and co-creator of legendary shooters such as DOOM and Quake. The redesigned game remains an FPS, though the team has reimagined every other aspect.

KitGuru noted that there is still no word on when the new shooter might launch, but hoped Romero and his team can keep making steady progress without fear of funding being unexpectedly pulled again. The outlet commented on the uncertainty surrounding the game’s release timeline and expressed hope for the studio’s continued stability. GameLuster said Romero’s past shooters and their modern versions serve as benchmarks for the genre his studio is building now on a smaller scale.