From 110 Staff to 5 After Xbox's Cuts: How John Romero Rescued His Next Shooter With a New Publisher and Breath of the Wild DNA
Dropped mid-flight by Microsoft during Xbox's sweeping corporate layoffs, Romero Games came perilously close to going under. Forced to slash its workforce from 110 employees down to just 5 survivors, the Galway, Ireland studio co-founded by John Romero and Brenda Romero refused to stay down. Speaking during Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show, the legendary co-creator of Doom and Quake confirmed that his studio's next shooter has secured a new publishing partner, rehired its core team leads, and undergone a ground-up redesign powered by Unreal Engine 5.8.
Retaining 100% IP Ownership and Rebuilding a 16-Veteran Strike Team
When Microsoft pulled its publishing agreement at a time when Microsoft's quarterly earnings increasingly pivot toward AI over traditional gaming hardware, John and Brenda Romero initially tried to keep their full roster on payroll as long as possible while hunting for rescue funding. As time wore on and staff naturally began moving on, finishing a massive project scoped for more than a hundred developers became impossible, forcing painful redundancies that left only five people standing.
In the aftermath of that cut, one crucial contractual detail saved the studio: Romero Games retained 100% ownership of everything it had built. The title, intellectual property, art direction, weapon models, characters, and source code all belonged entirely to the studio. Reaching out directly to an industry contact, John Romero struck a deal with a new publisher whose identity and reveal window remain under wraps, but whose terms offer rare creative autonomy: zero creative mandates in the contract.
Backed by a partner whose philosophy is simply "you make what you want, we're publishing it," the studio brought back 10 former staff members who served as the leads of its various sub-teams. The team now sits at 15 to 16 developers, a lean footprint that Romero says is the exact right size for the project moving forward.
Zero Producers, Unreal Engine 5.8, and Breath of the Wild Exploration Freedom
Rather than attempting the impossible task of finishing a 110-person blockbuster with a 16-person crew, John Romero executed a complete redesign. The studio is building a brand-new shooter in Unreal Engine 5.8 that carries over the best characters, weapons, art assets, and core shooting code from the canceled project, giving the team a massive head start while reshaping everything around the combat loop.
For the new design philosophy, the iconic architect behind classic Doom (a franchise whose composer Mick Gordon recently discussed returning to) points directly to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the puzzle-exploration hit Blue Prince. Tired of linear games that constantly dictate where players must go, Romero wants his shooter to capture the joy of organic distraction: setting out toward a distant tower, stumbling across intriguing landmarks and unexpected encounters along the way, and completely forgetting your original objective because the adventure itself took over.
Scaling down has also liberated John Romero's daily workflow. Instead of spending his days trapped in endless management meetings overseeing a hundred-person studio, he is back inside Unreal Editor designing by hand alongside a flat hierarchy of self-driven leads. Notably, the studio operates without a single producer on staff: "As soon as you need a producer, you're too big," Romero noted, pointing out that a compact team of veteran leads can pivot an entire design in a matter of hours.
My Take
"As soon as you need a producer, you're too big." That single quote from John Romero deserves to be framed in every executive boardroom across the industry. Watching the godfather of the first-person shooter survive Microsoft's corporate axe because he was smart enough to keep 100% of his intellectual property is a masterclass in studio independence. Even better, instead of mourning a lost AAA budget, I love seeing him ditch the all-day meetings to get his hands dirty in Unreal Editor with fifteen veteran leads and zero bureaucracy. If blending Romero's signature gunplay with the organic curiosity of Breath of the Wild delivers on its promise, Xbox pulling the plug might end up being the best thing that ever happened to this game.
SEO consultant for over 20 years and digital entrepreneur, Charles 'Grimtag' Ronchain is the founder of Pro-Gamer.gg, Retrocharting.com, and Gamescharting.com. A competitive gamer, streamer, and retro game collector, he has worked in the video game industry for over 15 years, notably as a consultant for leading game price comparison platforms. Passionate about real-time performance data and gaming technology, he analyzes competitive esports, gaming hardware benchmarks, and creator workflows on Pro-Gamer.gg with an authentic player perspective.
