The statement, made by studio director Brenda Romero reads, “Last night, we learned that our publisher has canceled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects at other studios. This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control.”
She goes on to emphasize this decision does not reflect the team’s ability or performance, and that they “hit every milestone on time, every time, consistently received high praise, and easily passed all our internal goals.” Unfortunately, it seems Microsoft decided that doing the job well was not enough to keep the game around, nor the team of people who’ve worked together for years.
This news follows a devastating day of layoffs not just at Microsoft’s gaming division, but across multiple teams underneath the tech giant that has led to around 9,000 job cuts. Romero Games and its unannounced first-person shooter are another unfortunate addition to the long list of in-development games affected by these mass cuts.
Despite Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s claim in a memo to staff, reviewed by IGN, that Xbox’s “platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger,” it is hard to find safety in these words when a studio founded by a pair of award-winning developers who’ve worked on several massively influential games like Doom and Quake can be hit like this overnight. It’s been pointed out that Spencer’s words may be less for players or devs and more for shareholders, which would explain the cognitive dissonance of making those claims while simultaneously laying off so many of the people who make those profitable games. It all marks how a job market that’s been unstable for years has somehow become even less steady.
