Romero Games finds a new publisher for a smaller shooter

Romero Games has signed a deal with a new publisher and brought back some of the staff who left after funding for its shooter was withdrawn. Studio founder John Romero told VGC that the game has been redesigned as a smaller project, but did not identify the publisher or say when it would be announced.

Romero said the studio had shrunk from 110 people to five before rehiring ten team leads. It now has around 15 to 16 staff. Microsoft was the previous publisher and withdrew its deal as part of company-wide layoffs, according to VGC.

The smaller team cannot finish the original game at its former scale, Romero explained. Instead, it is designing a different game that reuses some of the work already done, including code and artwork. He said the studio retains the rights to those assets and the intellectual property.

The studio’s website confirms that the shooter is still in development after its scope changed. Its name, platforms and release date have not been announced.