Doom designer John Romero could have been "System Shock designer John Romero," but the FPS legend got the offer to set up id Software "the week before" another offer to set up what would become Looking Glass

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He did later work with LookingGlass dev Warren Spector at Ion Storm

System Shock Remake
(Image credit: Nightdive Studios)

Doom designer John Romero has revealed that he almost co-founded another iconic studio instead of id Software, and we may have been calling him "System Shock designer John Romero" in another world.

1993 and 1994 would prove to be extremely important to the PC gaming landscape as two titles that would go on to define their genres dropped. I don't need to tell you the effect id Software's Doom had on the first person shooter genre, but then the next year LookingGlass Technologies' System Shock arrived and laid the foundation for the immersive sim that its sequel would then properly define (much like Doom did to Wolfenstein 3D's foundation).

John Romero & Larry Kuperman Discuss The Games Industry | Deep Dive - YouTube John Romero & Larry Kuperman Discuss The Games Industry | Deep Dive - YouTube
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Well it turns out things could have been much different for both studios. Speaking to Nightdive Studios (via PC Gamer) – who remade System Shock back in 2023 – id Software founder John Romero revealed that had he not made a promise a week prior, his career would have been very different. Romero said that while working at Origin Systems, his coworker Paul Neurath "had asked me before I left if I wanted to start a company with him, and I told him that I'd already promised the week before to found a company with my manager."

The studio Neurath founded, Blue Sky Productions, would later become LookingGlass Technologies, which in turn created the System Shock and Thief series. Nightdive's Larry Kuperman then points out how wild it would've been if John Romero had instead gone to work with Warren Spector, to which Romero reminds him they were coworkers at Ion Storm, where Spector directed Deus Ex, and John Romero made "you his bitch" with Diakatana.

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Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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