"Romero Games is not closed": After reports of layoffs caused by Microsoft, Romero Games says it did lose funding but has now heard from "several publishers interested in helping us"

Addressing "inaccuracies" in reports around its fate following funding lost in collateral damage from Microsoft's latest massive layoff wave, Romero Games issued a new statement confirming that the studio remains open and it's actively working to find a new path forward which includes offers from "several" potential new publishers.

"We want to address recent reports regarding the status of Romero Games," a new statement reads. "These reports have contained inaccuracies, and we feel it's important to set the record straight."

Romero Games affirms that funding for its project was pulled and that its game "was canceled," though it doesn't spell out the publisher that pulled that funding "due to confidentiality agreements." However, even the studio admits "some may infer it from public information," stopping just short of tapping "Microsoft" in morse code on the table.

With that funding gone, "we now have to reassess the entire staffing of our studio," Romero Games continues.

That does not mean, however, that everyone is laid off. It's worth noting that this notion didn't come out of nowhere; multiple Romero Games employees said they had been cut, and one specified that "our whole studio is being let go." It's possible some wires were crossed internally or folks understandably took the news hard on social media.

We previously reached out to Romero Games for details about the scope of the layoffs, the future of its unreleased game, and the nature of its previous publisher, but it declined to comment at the time. I've followed up with the studio to request more information.

For now, we know that "Romero Games is not closed, and we are doing everything in our power to ensure that it does not come to that. Any suggestion otherwise is factually incorrect. Indeed, we were in the studio today to discuss next steps with the team."

There is also hope for the canceled game itself. Romero Games says it has been "contacted by several publishers interested in helping us bring the game across the finish line, and we're currently evaluating those opportunities."

It's possible that those publishers include Pocketpair Publishing, the publishing arm of Palworld's developer, assuming that post from comms director and publishing manager John Buckley.

Brenda and John Romero recently spoke to GamesRadar+ as part of our wide-reaching developer panel on what people get wrong about games.