John Romero drops out of Midway role

Doom co-creator John Romero has confirmed rumours that he is no longer working for Midway, where he was working as project lead on the latest incarnation of the Gauntlet franchise at the company's San Diego offices.

In a short post on his personal website, Romero says that he "can definitely confirm that I have left Midway - I've been gone for about 3 weeks."

He was hired by the Midway San Diego studio in October 2003, along with fellow Ion Storm founder Tom Hall - with whom he had also founded Monkeystone Games in July 2001 following the closure of the Ion Storm Dallas office. His stint at Ion Storm was marked by controversy, with the much-hyped first-person shooter Daikatana eventually flopping after countless delays and almost embarrassingly brash marketing.

According to Romero, the development schedule for Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is unaffected by his departure. "Midway says that development of Gauntlet hasn't been impacted by my departure and is scheduled to ship this fall," he commented. "I can't say anything more about the situation and hope you all understand."

Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is set to launch on PS2, Xbox and PC in October. As for Romero himself, he says that he is "currently looking at lots of exciting developments right now and it'll be a couple months before I can announce my next destination."