Insider Gaming just pulled back the curtain on Hellslayer, the Xbox-funded first-person shooter from Romero Games that Microsoft canceled during July 2025’s brutal mass layoffs. According to the report published December 22, 2025, John Romero and his team spent nearly a decade developing this demon-slaying FPS where you play as a priest battling hell’s armies with Hotline Miami-inspired instant respawn mechanics. The cancellation left Romero Games heartbroken, but the studio survived and is now pivoting to a completely redesigned project that incorporates elements from the lost game.
Hellslayer: The Priest Who Fought Demons
The canceled project, codenamed Hellslayer, put players in the role of a priest waging war against demonic forces in first-person shooter action. Insider Gaming’s sources describe it as taking heavy inspiration from Hotline Miami’s brutal gameplay loop where death means instant respawn without lengthy loading screens or penalties. That design philosophy creates a fast, rhythmic combat experience where you die, learn, adapt, and immediately try again without breaking flow.
True to John Romero’s legendary reputation for creating Doom and Quake, Hellslayer would have delivered gritty, fast-paced action focused on massacring demons. The priest protagonist setup adds an interesting thematic layer rarely explored in mainstream shooters. While games like Dante’s Inferno touched on religious imagery fighting hell, few FPS titles center on explicitly playing as clergy wielding holy wrath against unholy monsters.
Ten Years Gone in an Instant
The most shocking revelation from Insider Gaming’s report is the timeline. Hellslayer had been in development for almost ten years before Microsoft pulled funding in July 2025. A decade of work, iteration, design changes, and creative vision suddenly wiped away by corporate budget cuts. That timeline suggests the project began around 2015-2016, potentially even before Romero Games officially incorporated in 2015.
The extended development cycle raises questions about what changed over those ten years. Video game projects rarely remain static across a decade. The gaming landscape transformed dramatically from 2015 to 2025. Unreal Engine evolved from UE4 to UE5. Player expectations shifted. Market trends changed. Hellslayer likely underwent multiple redesigns and pivots during that decade trying to find the right formula, only to get canceled before reaching the finish line.
Microsoft’s Summer of Canceled Games
Hellslayer became one casualty in Microsoft’s devastating July 2025 wave of layoffs and cancellations that rocked the gaming industry. Rare’s long-in-development Everwild got axed. The Perfect Dark reboot and The Initiative studio that was making it shut down completely. ZeniMax Online Studios lost their unannounced MMO codenamed Blackbird. Multiple other unannounced projects across various Xbox studios disappeared overnight.
Former Romero Games employees took to social media claiming the whole studio faced layoffs due to Microsoft’s decision. One designer described it as a massive, sudden, and unexpected hit on a project that was innovative, going strong, and most importantly fun. Studio director Brenda Romero released a statement explaining the publisher and financial partner confirmed they were walking away from the project along with several other unannounced games at different studios.
The Publishing Agreement That Wasn’t
Romero Games had a publishing agreement with Xbox for Hellslayer, though reports suggest Bethesda Softworks would have been the actual publisher handling the title. This makes sense given Microsoft’s ownership of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media and Bethesda’s history publishing titles from external studios. The layoffs specifically targeted Bethesda’s publishing operations according to Insider Gaming, leading to multiple project cancellations including Hellslayer.
The funding loss happened at a high strategic level well above Romero Games’ visibility or control according to Brenda Romero’s statement. The team had no warning and no opportunity to prevent it. One moment they’re developing a game they believed in, the next moment their publisher walked away. This represents the nightmare scenario for independent studios working with major publishers where your project’s fate gets decided in corporate budget meetings you’ll never attend.
From The Ashes: A New Game Rises
John Romero announced in early December 2025 during a panel at Salón del Videojuego de Madrid that Romero Games not only survived but is developing a new game. He clarified to rapturous applause that he survived the cancellation of a huge game and is now working on something completely different. While the new project has nothing to do with Hellslayer conceptually, it incorporates many elements from the canceled game.
Romero told the Madrid audience that his team isn’t starting from ground zero. They can take pieces from Hellslayer and put them into a brand-new indie game. The design is completely different, but the team feels very excited about the new direction. He emphasized that while he can’t discuss specifics to preserve the newness factor, he’s never played a game like it before despite decades of experience creating and playing shooters.
What The New Project Might Be
Romero compared the new game’s novelty to exploring Elden Ring for the first time – entering a crazy place and different world where you constantly wonder what that thing is. That sense of discovery and unfamiliarity drives the design philosophy behind whatever Romero Games is creating now. He confirmed it’s still a shooter, but the things you do in it will be new to people in ways that go beyond traditional FPS mechanics.
Insider Gaming claims they learned specific features about the new project but cannot disclose them to protect their sources. That tantalizing tease suggests the redesigned game has significant differences from Hellslayer beyond just setting and story. Romero also stated that fans of classic Id Software games like Doom and Quake will find many enjoyable elements when the new title eventually gets unveiled, connecting it to his legendary roots while promising fresh experiences.
The Indie Pivot Romero Never Wanted
The shift from AAA Microsoft-funded project to indie game represents a dramatic change in scope and resources. Hellslayer with Xbox backing would have enjoyed significant marketing budgets, large development teams, and the financial security to take creative risks. Now Romero Games operates as a smaller indie studio self-funding or seeking alternative publishing arrangements for a more modest project.
This isn’t necessarily bad. Some of gaming’s most innovative titles come from indie studios free from corporate oversight and profit margin demands. John Romero built his legend at Id Software when it operated as a scrappy independent developer pushing boundaries. Returning to indie roots after the Empire of Sin experience and the Hellslayer cancellation might unlock creative freedom that AAA development can’t provide.
Will We Ever See Hellslayer?
The canceled game likely remains buried forever. Microsoft owns whatever work Romero Games completed under their publishing agreement. The intellectual property, code, assets, and design documents all belong to Xbox unless specific contract terms say otherwise. Even if Romero Games retained some rights, resurrecting a canceled Microsoft project without permission creates massive legal headaches no small studio wants to navigate.
However, the instant respawn mechanics, priest protagonist concept, demon-slaying action, and Hotline Miami-inspired design philosophy could all resurface in the new project under different names and contexts. Game development frequently involves recycling good ideas that didn’t work in one context into new games where they fit better. Whatever made Hellslayer innovative and fun according to former developers might live on transformed into something completely different yet equally compelling.
FAQs
What was Hellslayer?
Hellslayer was John Romero’s canceled first-person shooter where players controlled a priest fighting demons. The game featured Hotline Miami-inspired instant respawn mechanics and had been in development for nearly 10 years before Microsoft pulled funding in July 2025.
Why did Microsoft cancel Hellslayer?
Microsoft canceled Hellslayer during massive July 2025 layoffs and budget cuts that affected multiple Xbox studios and projects. The decision came from high-level strategic choices within Microsoft’s gaming division during a wave of cancellations including Everwild and Perfect Dark.
Is Romero Games still open?
Yes. Despite rumors of closure following the funding loss, Romero Games survived and announced a new project in December 2025. The studio is now developing a completely redesigned indie shooter incorporating elements from the canceled Hellslayer.
What is John Romero working on now?
Romero is developing a new first-person shooter that he describes as unlike anything he’s ever played before. While completely redesigned from Hellslayer, it incorporates elements from the canceled project and promises to appeal to fans of classic Id Software games.
How long was Hellslayer in development?
According to Insider Gaming’s sources, Hellslayer had been in development for almost ten years before cancellation. This suggests the project began around 2015-2016, predating or coinciding with Romero Games’ official founding.
Who was publishing Hellslayer?
Romero Games had a publishing agreement with Xbox for Hellslayer, with reports suggesting Bethesda Softworks would have handled actual publishing duties. Microsoft’s ownership of Bethesda facilitated this arrangement before budget cuts to Bethesda’s publishing operations led to cancellation.
Will Hellslayer ever release?
Extremely unlikely. Microsoft owns the intellectual property and work completed under the publishing agreement. The game is canceled and will almost certainly never see release, though elements from it may appear in Romero Games’ new project.
What other games did Microsoft cancel in July 2025?
Microsoft canceled multiple projects including Rare’s Everwild, The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot, ZeniMax Online Studios’ unannounced MMO codenamed Blackbird, and several other unannounced titles across various Xbox studios during July 2025 layoffs.
Conclusion
The story of Hellslayer represents the harsh reality of modern video game development where even legendary creators like John Romero aren’t immune to corporate budget decisions. Ten years of work vanished overnight not because the game was bad – former developers called it innovative and fun – but because Microsoft decided it no longer fit their strategic plans during a wave of layoffs and cancellations. Romero Games survived by pivoting to a new indie project that salvages elements from the lost game while charting a completely different direction. Whether the new shooter can capture the magic that made Hellslayer special remains unknown, but if John Romero’s legendary career proves anything, it’s that he knows how to create memorable FPS experiences even when circumstances force dramatic changes. The gaming world lost what could have been an interesting priest vs demons shooter, but it might gain something even better if Romero’s new vision delivers on his promise of gameplay nobody’s experienced before.