John Romero, the legendary recreation designer who co-founded id Software program has had a profession spanning 5 a long time. Throughout that point he’s loved the best of highs, comparable to his seminal work on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, and the bottom of lows, most just lately when his present studio Romero Video games had its funding pulled by Microsoft amid the continued cuts throughout the Xbox enterprise that started final 12 months.
Talking with IGN throughout Gamescom Asia x Thailand Recreation Present 2026 this week, the place he delivered a gap keynote handle titled, ‘Why We Nonetheless Make Video games,’ Romero appeared upbeat in regards to the path of his newest venture regardless of 2025’s devastating setback. Actually, virtually a 12 months on from the loss in funding and the ensuing discount of his studio from 110 members of workers down to only 5, Romero claimed that he was “doing higher than [he’d] carried out in a long time.”
“It actually sucked,” stated Romero of the brutal blindsiding by Microsoft in 2025. “[But] I haven’t got bitterness as a result of that is not who I’m, actually. I all the time transfer ahead. So it is like, that occurred. Now we have now to determine the place to go from right here.”
Whereas Romero remained tight-lipped on the specifics, he was glad to verify that Romero Video games’ newest venture has secured a brand new publishing accomplice and that growth is continuing nicely regardless of the substantial discount in assets on the studio.
“I am unable to speak in regards to the writer, the discharge date, you already know, something that we’re doing, what it’s, it is as much as them,” stated Romero. The one particulars he might affirm was that “it’s a shooter, it makes use of Unreal Engine 5.8, and we’re bringing loads of stuff from the [cancelled] recreation over.”
In an interview with Salón del Videojuego de Madrid final December, Romero stated of his latest venture that he’d “by no means performed a recreation prefer it,” and claimed that though it’s a shooter, “the issues that you just do in it will likely be new to individuals [in the same] means that going by means of Elden Ring was a extremely new expertise.” Chatting with IGN this week, he stopped wanting describing the brand new recreation as being an open-world, however actually implied that it could characteristic much more freedom than your common objective-based first-person shooter.
“Exploration can be a huge deal for me after I play a recreation,” stated Romero. “I do not wish to be advised learn how to play [it], you already know? The video games I like essentially the most are those that simply let me go, ‘Okay, what is that this? This place is loopy or this place seems actually fascinating and similar to flip round and go that means, you already know? Like, do no matter you need.”
“It’s like if you play Blue Prince,” continued Romero. “After a whilst you resolve to show round from that first room, and also you’re like, ‘Oh my god! There’s an outdoors too?’”
Romero additionally in contrast his shooter to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, by way of the way it’s very straightforward to grow to be sidetracked alongside the way in which to a sure location or goal. By the sounds of it, Romero’s subsequent recreation ought to characteristic loads of enjoyable distractions amid all of the gun-based destruction.
“You wish to go to that tower over there, however you are going to run into every kind of stuff in between right here and there and that may change every little thing you are doing,” defined Romero. “You completely overlook that you just have been on your option to the tower, proper?”
“And so, that is the form of gameplay that I like, and that’s what [we’re] injecting into [the new game],” continued Romero. “The sensation that I need is for individuals to really feel like they’re simply going to have an journey and simply have enjoyable.”
After all, Romero was talking in summary phrases, and with treasured little concrete data we will solely speculate as to what precisely his studio’s yet-to-be-named shooter shall be like. However actually a freeform first-person shooter from an business legend who helped delivery the style sounds very engaging. Right here’s hoping that Romero and his group can ship on that promise.
Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN primarily based in Sydney, Australia. He has 25 years of expertise masking video video games, having served as Deputy Editor on Official PlayStation 2 Journal Australia and as Editor of Official Xbox 360 Journal Australia, earlier than becoming a member of IGN in 2009. You will discover him on Bluesky @tristanogilvie.bsky.social