Shooter Survives Purge Drawing Power from Zelda
For five decades, John Romero has been a titan of the gaming world, shaping an entire generation of players through seminal works like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. Yet, even legends face the inevitable turbulence. Most recently, Romero’s studio, Romero Games, navigated a brutal financial downturn when Microsoft pulled funding for new shooter projects amid broader cuts across the Xbox business in 2025.
Despite this significant setback, Romero remains unfazed, choosing to focus on the forward momentum of creation rather than dwelling on the loss. Speaking at recent events, he revealed a surprising perspective, claiming that almost a year after the funding loss and the subsequent reduction of staff from 110 to just five, he felt he was “doing better than [he’d] done in decades.”
“It really sucked,” Romero admitted regarding the blindsiding event of 2025. [But] I don’t have bitterness because that’s not who I am, really. I always move forward. So it’s like, that happened. Now we have to figure out where to go from here.”
While the business challenges were real, the focus quickly shifted to the exciting possibilities ahead. Romero confirmed that Romero Games is moving forward, having secured a new publishing partner and maintaining development momentum despite the substantial reduction in resources.
The new project is already taking shape, leveraging cutting-edge technology. It is set to be a shooter utilizing Unreal Engine 5.8 and drawing significant content from past, cancelled projects.
But the real story lies not in the technical specs, but in the artistic vision. In a recent interview, Romero described the experience of creating this new game as something entirely novel. He stated that while the title is a shooter, the mechanics would introduce experiences that feel new to players in the same way that Elden Ring did.
For Romero, true game design is about freedom. He believes the most engaging experiences are those that allow players to explore and make spontaneous decisions, rather than being confined by rigid objectives. “Exploration is really a big deal for me when I play a game,” he explained. [I don’t like to be told how to play it.]
He described the ideal gameplay as allowing players to be delightfully sidetracked. He compared the flow of the new game to the freedom found in titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, emphasizing the joy of finding unexpected paths. “You want to go to that tower over there, but you’re going to run into all kinds of stuff in between here and there and that might change everything you’re doing,” he noted, stressing the importance of allowing players to simply go and explore.
This philosophy aims to inject pure adventure into the gun-based destruction. Romero’s next endeavor, though shrouded in the mystery of its final name and release date, promises to be a freeform experience, driven by exploration and unconstrained fun from an industry legend who helped birth the genre.
Buy on Amazon
Credit
