Romero Games Hit With Layoffs Following Microsoft Xbox Cuts

I understand Microsoft having to make certain cuts when it becomes clear something isn't working out and money is being thrown at a project you can tell isn't going to work out before it is finished, or will not sell well, but there have been so many errors made by their management that they must take account themselves too.

They won't, but I think Phil and some of the other team should leave for overseeing such failures, and with alarming regularity.

XBOX CEO is a monster now.
At this rate, he will not care about making games that can be enjoyed by everybody.
Instead, he keeps busy thinking too much about gargantuan AAA games agenda but before even the games are finished, he just cancelled the project and lay off the employees.
He just very narrow minded with his gaming idea: Game Pass, All Digital, Live Service, FPS games and AAA 18+ games.
He hates to make kids games like Nintendo for their XBOX.
And why should I buy their current XBOX machine?
I have zero reason to buy their current product.
Even there are some 3rd party kids games on current XBOX machine, they are exactly same games as PlayStation and Nintendo have.

Devs cut yourself loos from the Beast. And start a smaller dev team and grow from there.
At this point i am done with Xbox. The games i looked forward to where canceled.

@karatekid1612 Good news, Romero Games is independant, they were just signed on with Microsoft funding and publishing this project.

They decided it wasn't worth it and cut the supply of money off, so now they have no funds to pay their staff despite the game progressing well by all accounts.

I wouldn't be shocked if the same thing happens to Toys For Bob: they went through layoffs after Xbox bought them, went independant, and then immediately got a publishing deal with Microsoft that is probably going to get culled at some point.

Maybe smaller businesses shoud have more courage of their work rather than selling out to corporations.

I think one issue is that small/medium sized companies often accept being bought out because they hope for steady funding. As independents they have to constantly go around looking for funding, pitching game ideas. But what we are seeing is that this is not a very safe long term decision. Many studios that make this bargain wind up unceremoniously shuttered despite being relatively successful. It may be best to stay independent.

Of course, in Romero’s case I guess he IS independent which means he could try to find new funding for this game. But yeah being independent does not exactly make you immune to these situations.

As a kid, I always wanted to be a video game developer.

Today, as an adult, reading articles like these, I'm actually really glad I never pursued a career in video game development.

While I've bought'n played every DooM game ever made, all of their most recent games (over the last decade or so) have been lacking traditional death match; which is where the magic was at. Not sure why they would exclude a part of the game that had everything to do with its popularity in the first place.

I've noticed this trend amoungst all of my favorite old school IP's that are being developed by people that have nothing to do with the originals. Games such as Diablo and Metroid, two of my other all time favorites, change up the formula and then wonder, why their new games aren't as popular.

We like to throw all the blame at these mega-corps who've bought up the studios without placing any blame on the studio founders who sold (often for large sums for themselves) the studios to begin with.

The whole industry is $ick.

@Yosher when I was a kid I also wanted to be a game developer. In high school I started looking into what it was really like. The whole “wives of EA” thing had just happened and I quickly realized that it was a terrible industry to work in. Plus the likelihood of becoming who you really want to be - the next Miyamoto or Kojima or something - is basically nil, especially now. Most likely you would spend your career as some kind of specialist who puts foliage on trees or something.

I switched focus to a different creative area, which was a good decision. I do dabble in hobbyist development still just for fun. I wouldn’t recommend the game industry to anyone based on what I know from the outside.

Let's not forget who really matters in a time like this: the investors.

Thoughts and prayers for the stocks.

The people who have all been let go should start new indie studios. So much talent has gone to waste like this, it really saddens my heart.

the endless over reach for infinite growth and no ability to take accountability for poor management is finally causing the industry to self destruct

Not a shocker, any time I've been at a company that was rapidly expanding I knew unless things reach unprecedented highs, a lot of these new faces were coming in on borrowed time. With acquisitions it's just as much to blame the owners who cashed out without caring who was buying because it was no longer their concern.

Also, I haven't kept up with Romero's work lately, and wow. Legendary guy who has been legendarily mid for decades. Homeboy hasn't had a good one since Anachronox in 2001. Definitely isn't making anyone his B word anymore.

I applied to be a developer on this one at one point, but moving to Ireland was a heavy ask. Great team though. I hope for the best to everyone involved!

I kinda have to respect Microsoft's ability to so utterly destroy second party studios too. You know, from a logistical standpoint. The way one would respect the efficiency of a German "doctor" in the 40's.

@MSaturn It is really unfortunate that a job in making things that should bring smiles to many people is so toxic, huh? I'm glad you found yourself a different career path and spared yourself the (professional) game development misery!

@Yosher thanks, and to take it beyond the personal, I’m sure there are lots of potential game developers who are scared off by all the terrible news stories like this. That’s a completely invisible cost that could be robbing the industry of (some) talent in the years to come.

@MSaturn Honestly just shows that the game industry needs companies like Nintendo now more than ever.

Like they're absolutely not perfect, but they're consistently said to be great to work for or with, and there's some value in that.

@Yosher I agree completely. And it’s a reason I’m pretty focused on the indie game community - because there people can really pursue their creative ideas. But various reasons it’s very difficult to make a living as an indie game developer.

All this money and this is what they do? What a negative impact all around them. No wonder their image suck. I'm glad I'm playing with Nintendo instead of the mean dumb greedy bullies at MS.

John Romero is one of the greatest level designers of all time. He and his team deserve better than this.

@Yalloo Nintendo is evil and greedy as well, and many, many examples can be found. Just because Microsoft is evil and greedy doesn't mean other game publishers are saints.

And no, you cannot impact any of this by playing or not playing only certain publishers' games. Even if so, they all collude and use each others' works. Smash Brothers was likely developed on Microsoft Windows machines and features characters owned by and licensed from Microsoft; two examples of many.

Their best path right now is to start over and go independent. Don't try to get into another big publisher as those are usually dream crusher. Big publishers don't care about smaller studios or devs, only themselves and their profits. I wish them the best in their next future endeavor.

@axelhander I get your point. But letting go of thousands of employees when your business makes more money than ever is not something I accept or support.

I never said Nintendo were saints. I merely refered to MS as a dumb and greedy bully that has a negative impact on their surroundings.

That's what he gets for making himself Microsoft's b****.

All jokes aside, I hope for the best to those affected not only at Romero Games, but across Microsoft.

@dew12333 courage doesn’t keep the lights on and the employees paid.

@Gedrick Neither did putting all their eggs in one basket.

Empire of sin could use some more bug fixes but was a good game.

@Ellie-Moo Well said!

At this point, it almost seems as though Microsoft are trying to single-handedly sabotage the games industry themselves. They've bought so much talent and cannot seem to facilitate them producing their best work.

I hope those people manage to get new work and I also hope Microsoft manage to turn all of this around, but it's definitely looking a little bleak.

Nintendo understands that all they need to do is continue creating great games. By contrast, Microsoft seem to have completely abandoned games and are focussing on shareholders above all else. It's absolutely wild that they cannot produce a single generation-defining game from all of the incredible studios they spent billions on.

@Yalloo "I'm glad I'm playing with Nintendo instead of the mean dumb greedy bullies at MS" is what you said, so I assumed you meant to imply they weren't as bad.

And of course nobody should be supporting MS layoffs. It's disgusting. On that we agree.

Said it before say it again this is just Microsoft closing the gaming industry down
Thay have the money to keep it all going if they wanted to!
They stared with rare and now all the others are on the way out as well.

Ppl will see this and still go “nah brobruhbrah you gotta trust me AAA gaming is doing great it’s WAY better than that samey indie crap!!!11”

Were objectively experiencing a AAA crash rn and with a few exceptions like Marvel Rivals and Nintendo’s stuff the market is in absolutely the lowest point it’s ever been.

@Mirage-5x5 Rare went downhill because of their own accord. Everytime a new Banjo project has been proposed or they’ve denied interest in their series it’s cause the devs and people at Rare themselves simply chose not do do anything with them. Hate Microsoft but they weren’t to blame for Rare’s downfall as all they did was bring them under their umbrella

The Konami Hudson Soft situation was WAY worse yet I don’t see y’all giving them crap for that. I’ll take Nuts and Bolts ANY day over turning Bomberman into smelly anime goonbait again 🤢🤮

@PinballBuzzbro Microsoft management kept stopping rare from making games every time rare started a new project Microsoft closed it down so rare were left with nothing to do
A lot of the staff left rare partly to do with it.
Microsoft were 100% to blame

@axelhander Well ... they have never got rid of thousands of employees, probably even alltogether. And not even when the company was doing bad. Even less when they're ultra profitable. In that sense they are not as bad.
Now, Nintendo is a company and they run a business. And they're no saint.

Romero should totally just remake Diakatana.

@Yalloo @axelhander clearly has a very large chip on their shoulder. Nintendo are not evil, jeepers creepers.

This seems like engagement bait but I'll take it to crap on modern day Microsoft, holy sh*t what are they doing. Japanese corporate apology culture can be pretty annoying but the fact Phil Spencer would be gone by now in a Japanese company is a good thing.

@SpontaneousOutburst With a free engine and some community support why not, it'd be hilarious. "I can't keep going without my bud Superfly... :-_("

@AmplifyMJ Objectively without skin in the game, he's speaking ideologically from a left wing perspective not specifically against Nintendo, and arguing about the inherent morality of corporatism and capitalism doesn't seem like a great idea on a gaming site, not that that's stopped anyone. Just sayin

A bummer, it's always sad to see people lose their jobs. That said, without having ever seen the game, I do have to wonder if it's right to jump to the obvious conclusion that Microsoft is to be blamed here. For all we know, the game was not shaping up well. Just some food for thought, world is never black and white.

@Fiergala I'm not left wing.

Saying that with no venom or snark. Just wanted to clarify.

@SpontaneousOutburst I've been waiting for Daikatana 2: Wrath of the Planet Eater for a while now.

Phil Spencer was always considered a monster, but now he's a loser as well.
The Perfect Dark remaster was so close to being completed.
Now they've thrown it in the trash, never to see the light of day again.

This is why people pirate games and emulate, because not only are video games becoming more expensive (and poorly made) but also from the lack of faith they have in these scummy companies because of examples like this. What a waste.

@Mirage-5x5 Proof? Not saying I don’t believe you, like I’ve said I hate Microsoft, its just I’ve genuinely never heard that before

@PinballBuzzbro it was some years ago now it was in artificial on a gaming Web site one of the staff from rare said that Microsoft was stopping them from making new games.
No I don't have proof now but all I can say is what I read at the time.
Are you sure you not a Microsoft fan boy 😂😂

@SurprisedRobinChu It's pretty awful. Yeah "The Initiative" was taking too long to make it but they were close enough, if it wasn't going to be good change the scope and reduce the price rather than releasing "gameplay" trailers to hype people up based on nothing, there are lots of ways to refocus a game without throwing out the baby with the bathwater. That is something I give Nintendo credit for, unless something has gone seriously wrong with their development they usually don't do this kind of fake hype for products that don't exist. Don't care much about the franchise but from a dev perspective, very worried for Fable.

@PinballBuzzbro here is a prity good video about Microsoft and rare history there is a section we're Microsoft did cancel a lot of rare games
But it all so showing both sides of the coin
Here is the link. https://youtu.be/Po5NOHyMD4g?si=oZBAgBEJZnCNTF1b
I could not find the original article but like I said that was along time ago

On another point thay just cancelled two of rare games perfect dark and can't remember the other one so still going today
Microsoft have more than an

Btw Phil Spencer won the Lifetime Achievement award at the 2022 D.I.C.E. Awards, presumably for keeping the seats warm round the office for a long time and grinning like a chucklef@ck. Shows about how much that award is worth -toilet flushing sounds in background-

That’s a lot of layoffs.

This is starting to feel like 1983.

@AmplifyMJ imagine going through the effort of setting up an account just to sneer...lol