John Romero’s Xbox-Canceled Shooter: He Still Wants to Relaunch the Half-Finished FPS

Back in July, Romero Games revealed the cancellation of its first-person shooter (FPS) — a title previously backed by Xbox. The decision came as Microsoft rolled out summer budget cuts that impacted multiple in-development projects, including this one.

Early rumors claimed Romero Games was on the verge of shutting down, but John Romero quickly debunked the speculation. The legendary designer behind DOOM and Quake confirmed he was actively seeking a new publishing partner, and in a recent interview with Game Reactor, he doubled down on his commitment to saving the game.

“Well, we’re still working through our plans for the project. We own the full license, the complete code, and every asset tied to the game.

There are several interested companies still collaborating with us on this — because when you spend years developing a game and invest around $50 million into it, a new partner essentially gets that $50 million in value for free.

Lots of teams want to pick up a project like this, and even if it doesn’t pan out exactly as planned, you have $50 million worth of assets to repurpose for something new [...] Having those resources already in place lets you finish the game much faster.”

Romero also shared that the FPS was 50% complete when Xbox pulled the plug. An anonymous former studio employee added that, for now, “the entire team is unemployed.”