John Romero's Canceled Shooter Is Still Canceled, but He's Taking 'Elements' and Putting Them in a Brand New Game

Doom co-creator John Romero has revealed that portion his erstwhile shooter was canceled, "elements" of it unrecorded connected successful his latest concealed project.

Romero Games, the workplace founded by John and Brenda Romero, was near "heartbroken" this summertime aft Microsoft reportedly pulled backing of its adjacent task arsenic portion of the company's latest circular of cuts and wide layoffs. The cuts besides affected different interior Xbox studios, starring to the cancellation of the likes of Everwild and Perfect Dark, arsenic good arsenic different unannounced titles Microsoft had been funding.

Despite immoderate reports, the workplace did not close, and the Romeros assured fans they were "evaluating opportunities" from publishers that had been successful interaction since the backing issues were announced, but precise small was known astir the crippled different than it was a first-person shooter.

Now, successful a caller interrogation astatine Salón del Videojuego de Madrid (thanks, Eurogamer), John Romero revealed, to rapturous applause, that helium had "survived the cancellation of a immense game." And portion his existent task "has thing to bash with the erstwhile game," it "incorporates a batch of the elements that we had successful the erstwhile game."

"We're up — we're not starting astatine crushed zero," helium explained. "We person 50 cardinal worthy of a game. We tin instrumentality pieces retired and enactment [them] into a marque caller indie game, truthful we person a batch of worldly to enactment successful the game, and the plan is wholly different, but the squad is truly excited.

"It's a precise overmuch smaller game," helium added. "It's much amusive for america due to the fact that the radical moving connected it were each directors of antithetic departments, and they didn't really get to codification oregon plan oregon immoderate — bash it themselves — and truthful present we get to really bash that, bash the happening that we're truly bully astatine ourselves. That's wherefore tiny teams are great."

John Romero is present moving connected a smaller standard shooter. Photo by Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images for SDCCMalaga.

Though helium wouldn't beryllium drawn connected specifics — "I can't speech astir what we're doing successful the game, conscionable due to the fact that it needs to beryllium new" — Romero insisted helium has "never played a crippled similar it" before.

"It's a shooter, but the things that you bash successful it volition beryllium caller to radical [in the same] mode that going done Elden Ring was a truly caller experience. It was a precise brainsick spot and a antithetic world, and it was truly chill to research it and just, 'What is that?' That's the thought down what we're doing successful this game."

Photo by Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images for SDCCMalaga.

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.