John Romero Says His Axed Xbox Shooter Has a New Publisher

John Romero says the unannounced shooter that Microsoft dropped now has a new publisher. He has not said who it is, or when that partner will be revealed.

Romero made the confirmation in an interview with Video Games Chronicle during Gamescom Asia. A publisher is the company that funds, markets and releases a game. Microsoft pulled its publishing agreement for Romero Games' project as part of layoffs across the corporation.

The loss hit the studio hard. Romero Games' team fell from 110 people to five after it lost funding. Since then, the studio has rehired 10 people who had led different sub-teams, bringing the current team to around 15 to 16 staff.

The original plan is off the table. Romero said the 110-person version of the game will not be completed. Instead, the shooter has been redesigned as a different game, scoped for a team of around 15 to 16. It reuses work from the earlier version.

The studio also keeps control of what it built. Romero Games retains 100% ownership of the project's name, IP (intellectual property, meaning the name, characters, art and code that make up a game), art, graphics and code. That matters for any new deal, because the studio is not starting from nothing.

The studio's website says the project is still on. It states that after 2025 the team respawned, a term for starting over with a new plan, and rescoped the game. The game is still a first-person shooter, a genre where players see the action through the character's eyes.

Back in July 2025, TweakTown reported that several publishers had expressed interest in the project after its previous backer withdrew support. Romero's latest comments suggest one of those conversations has led to a deal.

For players, the news confirms the game is not dead, but it is no longer the project first described. The scale has changed, and the people building it have changed with it. Romero has not said when the new publisher will be named, so the next step is still to come.