In the wake of Microsoft’s layoffs and studio closures last week, rumors circulated that Romero Games — the studio founded by Doom creator John Romero — had also shut down after funding for its still-untitled game was pulled. Those rumors are false, and the studio is still alive and kicking, even if it isn’t out of the woods yet.
Romero Games shared an update on its social media accounts late yesterday afternoon that the studio “is not closed, and [they] are doing everything in [their] power to ensure it does not come to that.” Perhaps more exciting is the possibility that the cancelled game still has a lifeline.
“We’ve been contacted by several publishers interested in helping us bring the game across the finish line, and we’re currently evaluating those opportunities,” the message reads. The original publisher pulled funding last week, and Romero Games cannot publicly state who that publisher was due to confidentiality agreements. Considering funding vanished after Microsoft announced thousands of layoffs, you can make an educated guess.
Update (July 7, 2025) pic.twitter.com/9QoZ7RWY3S
John Romero added his own comment to the statement, saying “Tl;dr – This is a team and a game worth fighting for.”
While there is some small hope for the game to continue, the studio saw the loss of multiple members (as reported by various social media announcements) and now says it has to “reassess the entire staffing of our studio.” It is unclear what that means. In its original announcement, the studio said its members were “heartbroken that it’s come to this.” Some of team had worked together for more than 20 years.
Next to nothing is known about the game, but it comes from an impressive pedigree. The announcement that other studios are interested in potentially funding it is a flicker of good news — something much needed in an industry that has seen so many jobs lost and livelihoods disrupted.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.