Word of the San Mateo, California based developer being hit with layoffs came earlier today via Kotaku tipsters, with quiet mention of the cutbacks hitting Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, the latter two home to "ex-Slipgate Ironworkers" groups. We reached out to a few ex-Slipgate employees who confirmed that they were no longer with the company as of this week, estimating that around 50 staffers were let go.

According to a statement from Gazillion—home to Gargantuan, NetDevil, Slipgate and The Amazing Society—the team at Slipgate Ironworks is now officially smaller, with some of the affected employees being placed at other positions within the company. Slipgate's MMO project, which John Romero briefly detailed a few years ago, is said to continue with a new format.

"Gazillion has enjoyed remarkable growth over the past year and is proud to be partners with revered, world-class brands," reads a statement. "We have expanded our number of studios from one to four and our MMO portfolio from two games to a slate of titles. As part of our focus on reaching the widest possible audiences with breakthrough MMO entertainment, we decided to change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim."

That may mean some changes from the game's original vision, according to Gazillion.

"The game we'll launch will build on the efforts to date with a smaller core team and the other Slipgate staff are already in discussions around the many open positions across our slate of projects," the statement notes. "2010 will be an exciting year for Gazillion as we bring several groundbreaking MMOs to markets worldwide. We're tremendously appreciative for the dedication and creativity of our employees who make this all possible."

Gazillion Entertainment signed a 10-year-long deal with Marvel Entertainment earlier this year to produce a number of titles based on the comic book publisher's properties. Slipgate was said to be working on an original property for Gazillion, not related to the Marvel deal.

The estranged game designer, who's no longer with id and currently developing iPhone games, tweeted this: "ZENIMAX??????? Disgusting." He followed that up an hour later with "Fallout 3 bought DOOM. Wow."

Romero is known for coining the term "deathmatch" and the disastrous Daikatana ad campaign. That, and having amazing hair.

Id co-founder John Carmack, id CEO Todd Hollenshead and ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman told Kotaku that the purchase will change none of the principles or principals of id and Bethesda but will allow id to grow like it never has before.

We've contacted Romero to clarify, but have yet to receive a reply.

Update: Hours later, Romero tweeted, "i guess i was shocked and sad to see the id Software of old changed forever today. it's a new day and a new id." Same old Romero, though.

@theromero [Twitter via VG247]

1) On Sept. 3, That Gaming Site contacted John Romero, who originally announced the game about a year ago. TGS asked how the game was coming and if a release date had been set.
2) Romero told them this (verbatim):

From: [John Romero]
To: [That Gaming Site]
Subject: Re: About Severity
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:47:04 -0700

Yeah........ the game was canceled a while ago. I'm never going to announce a game that i'm not actually working on again. :)

Sorry!

John Romero

3) TGS published the story and tipped us and others. At least one other blog linked to it.
4) Tom Mustaine at developer Escalation Studios got in touch with TGS to say the project was in "stealth mode" and Romero wasn't in the loop on what was going on with it. Romero later wrote TGS to say this (verbatim)

From: [John Romero]
To: [That Gaming Site]
Subject: Re: Severity NOT canceled
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:03:45 -0700

Looks like it's in stealth mode after all. This is why publishing fan emails isn't a good idea. If I was going to make an official announcement I would have gotten you in touch with Escalation Studios.

- John

5) I was contacted by both That Gaming Site and Mustaine at Escalation Studios, TGS to point out its own retraction and Mustaine to ask for one. My apologies to him and to Escalation.

So, the bottom line, Severity is not canceled. Romero, despite being linked to the game from its inception, wasn't in a position to comment on it but, in our defense (and That Gaming Site's) didn't really let anyone know that. If you're reading the comments, bear in mind they could be based on inaccurate info we posted. This is all in the interest of FYI and transparency.

Official: Severity NOT Canceled [That Gaming Site]

Mr. Wilson needed to email Kotaku a nice long letter to recount his version of events at Ion Storm and slam my personal life - way to go Mike! Media manipulation at its saddest. It's analogous to a crotch shot of Britney in Hollywood's media circus.

Anyway, I think we're both mature enough to end this flame war. I just wanna see the cool games that gamecock is gonna release.

It's ok guys - no need to continue this worthless fight and commentary. Mike emailed me and apologized for his response.

But developing a game and publishing a game are completely different things. Gamecock is PUBLISHING other developer's games with the money they have from their investors, it's not personal money. Developers, on the other hand, get money from publishers to create their games. They're the guys with the ideas and the blood, sweat and tears putting in the work to make it all happen. Without the developers there are no games.

Without the publishers......the developers become their own publisher.

...and...

Yeah, approval process of bitch ad:

mike: hey, here's the kickass ad the richards group did - i think it's great and we should do it

john: uh, i would never say that to someone "you're my bitch" - that's kinda gay

mike: don't be a pussy! people will get it - it's trashtalking.

john: ok, whatever...

In the same post, Romero also placed part of the blame on Wilson for the laughable "John Romero's About To Make You His Bitch" print ads that ran prior to the release of the ill-fated shooter Daikatana.

Wilson responds in an open letter to Romero, sent to Kotaku, that he will "not allow you to rewrite the history of it all, more to your liking and to my public detriment, and I will in no way take the rap for what you did (or didn't do) with your dream company", going on to defend his character and refute certain claims.

It gets particularly nasty near the end of the letter, when Wilson says to Romero "your unparalleled work ethic and strong character has [...] left only a bloody trail of ex-wives, fatherless kids, and ill advised breast implants strewn across this fair nation." Insert stunned silence here, then continue for the full "Dear John" letter.

Dear John, I'm writing this letter from Moscow, having just read your lovely post about me, which a good friend forwarded me and implored me to reply to. I really never thought I would relive the joy that was Ion Storm, circa 1997, or that the memories of those times still troubled you so 11 years later. Then again, I would guess you live in the memories of your twenties as much as you can, given the reality of your thirties. Glad to know I'm still in your thoughts.

I enjoyed your comments very much, but several of my friends (especially those that were around for those heady time to witness the truth of it up close) did not find it quite so funny, and thought that I should take the time to set a few things straight as publicly as the flame you chose to randomly launch my way.

While I am not at all interested in reliving those days, I will also not allow you to rewrite the history of it all, more to your liking and to my public detriment, and I will in no way take the rap for what you did (or didn't do)with your dream company. So here are just a few reminders to jog your memory.

While my job title (which you gave me) was CEO of your company, I was one of two "junior partners" in a partnership of 6. I made about 1/3 of what the 'big boy partners' (as you liked to call yourselves back then) did and owned less than five percent of your company. I wasn't awarded a 250k signing bonus like you were for signing up to your own startup and I didn't have a personal assistant like you, nor occupy one of the 4 corners of power in the original Ion Storm building. And unlike you, I didn't get to file a federal trademark for my own personal catch phrase," Suck it Down." I remind you of these things only to remind you that there was absolutely nothing done by me or Ion Storm, including the advertisements which bore your name and which you happily posed for, that didn't require your full approval and grand signature.

And while I did think that famous Bitch ad was pretty funny, I'll remind you that you signed that one too, and I'm fairly certain I wasn't holding your hand or using a Jedi mind trick on you when you did it. I'll also remind you that the whole reason for running the teaser ad was that we felt we should be starting to advertise the game since it you said was shipping so soon, for Christmas in 1997. Even though we had nothing but a logo and that signature promise to use for an ad 6 months before you promised Eidos and your partners that Daikatana would be ready to redefine shooters on shelves worldwide.

Our former employee also reminded me that I fought on a daily basis to try to save that company from the poison which you had invited into it (and watched spread like a cancer while you kept your head in the sand), only to find myself ushered out the door, since it was such a buzz kill to hear my incessant complaints about the way things were being run, which were really those of the 80 or so young fresh faced developers we hired in the 10 months I was there. But hey, it was clear that I was the problem there, as you guys really took off the year after I left. Or, more accurately, nearly every one of those 80 hires did.

I do owe you a thank you for that little shove to get me started on Gathering of Developers, a company that I was an actual partner of, and which Take Two 'reigned in' buy buying for 30 million dollars, two years after we opened an office, which resulted in no less than eight million unit selling PC games and over 350 million dollars in revenue for TTWO (my investors) during roughly the same amount of time that it took you and the remaining 'big boy partners' to shit away Eidos' (your investors) 30 million and deliver one of the biggest heaps of dung ever put onto a CD Rom, just before being foreclosed on. Thank god for Warren Spector, who was also made a 'junior partner', and later delivered Eidos Storm's only salvation in the form of Deus Ex.

And please don't be too concerned for the independent developers I work with... just like with GodGames, and like the deal I struck for you with Eidos, Gamecock owns their IP and is branded above the publisher on everything, and has a great royalty rate. Royalty rates are what you make if you actually make a game that is good and sells. Remember Quake one?

I'm also grateful for your concern over my incessant partying, which has somehow led me to be married to the same beautiful woman for 17 years now, while raising two incredible daughters together. You should maybe try the partying, since your unparalleled work ethic and strong character has (just in the time I've known you) left only a bloody trail of ex-wives, fatherless kids, and ill advised breast implants strewn across this fair nation, even before you flew all the way to Romania for your latest wife. If she's not still around, let me know, and I'll see if I can pick another one up for you here in Russia.

Its been great catching up, but I'm off to dinner now with Harry Miller, my best friend and business partner for the past decade (ever had one of those, John?), and our very happy new investor, followed by some crazy partying to keep it real, just for you.

You take care now, and remember just because id, Eidos, and then Midway fired you doesn't mean you're not still awesome!

Suck it down,

Your pal Mike

Happy weekend, everybody!

I got a chuckle out of reading the reader's comments on the article. People are now starting to get a clue about how Mr. Wilson operates. Hey everyone, he hasn't changed in over 10 years — these are the kinds of jackass stunts he pulled at Ion Storm with Daikatana. Remember the bitch ad? Yeah. He also ran ads ("image ads") that just had pictures of Ion Storm founders, himself and our COO. That was just the beginning of his madness.

It got much worse at Godgames where he pretty much just partied all the time and after the whole thing got reined in by Take 2 he went underground for a while, waiting for his next victim/investor so he could go hogwild all over again. And thus was born Gamecock.

While game details are still scarce, with Johnboy confirming that the company is still figuring out how they plan to see revenue from the game (subscriptions and/or in-game purchases), the only concrete details are that the game uses the BigWorld Engine and will be set "on an Earth-like planet." Looks like Romero subscribes to Denis Dyack's marketing theories.

In addition to his MMO, John reveals there's "no way" he'll work for a publisher again, calling the process "a treadmill." It sure didn't work out too well for Daikatana, eh, John?. Michael McWhertor

Q&A: John Romero On Slipgate's Big MMO Plans [Gamasutra]

Bitch-maker and Doom co-creator John Romero (above, mass of hair) offers his two cents on where gaming is headed. And where is that? The PC. (Surprise!) He says that cheaper processors will mean a shift away from consoles, adding:

My prediction is that the game console in the vein of the PS3 and Xbox 360 is going to either undergo a massive rethink or go away altogether. The Wii has the perfect design for a console that doesn't pretend to be a PC and is geared more toward casual gamers than hardcore gamers. The hardcore gamers are going to either be playing on their PCs or a new PC-like platform that sits in the living room but still serves the whole house over wifi, even the video signal.

So, Sony and Microsoft are screwed, but Nintendo isn't? Fanboy. Brian Ashcraft

Romero Talks The Future [1Up]

The Cyperathlete Professional League announced that they are fronting a new console and PC multiplayer shooter created using an id Software engine to be used in future tournaments.

Severity is a multiplayer first person shooter (FPS) focusing on team-versus-team and one-versus-one play modes. Additionally, the game offers unprecedented support for gamers worldwide playing in online and live competitions both casually and professionally.

"Severity will be the first videogame conceived from the ground up to ensure the growth and appeal of multiplayer game competitions worldwide," said Tom Mustaine, Director of Game Development at the CPL's new studio.

Severity is built on technology created by developer id Software and includes enhanced tournament support, spectator modes, as well as detailed player and tournament statistics tracking. By leveraging the enthusiastic community and practical experiences of the CPL, Severity is uniquely positioned to set new standards while raising the bar for competitive multiplayer games.

The league expects to start testing the game before the end of next year. Now sit back and watch John Romero talk about his new baby. Brian Crecente

Outside of which Ukrainian child bride he's married this week and updates to his blog detailing the best method of applying egg whites to a lionesque mane, it seems the only publicity John Romero gets these days is giving interviews about his halcyon days with Quake and Doom.

And he's given another one, this time to Quakeexpo.com... as usual, it covers a lot well-trodden ground, but still manages to be surprisingly entertaining. Here's Romero making the observation that the Quake soundtrack sucked.

Trent didn't spend much time on it and the only real standout track was the title song. If we had played the music as MP3's instead of CD Audio i believe people would have really identified with it more - 99% of people who play Quake don't play it with the CD in the drive. During Quake's development we were playing MP3s in the game that were created by a friend of Trent's that were really really great - I wish we would have kept those songs and played them as MP3s.

He also comments on how the direction of the game changed 7 months from ship, which explains why American McGee (in a long lost .plan update) claimed that one of the things you could do in Quake deathmatch was rip off an opponent's head and sodomize the gurgling esophagus. I'm totally not kidding; he actually said that. Florian Eckhardt

Interview with John Romero [Quake Expo]

Are you interested in joining our amazingly talented and highly motivated superstar game development team? Are you supercore enough to survive our hyperdimensional environment???!!

Supercore! He's so subtle. If you like wide-eyed, unchecked hyperbole, live near the Redwood City, California area, and think you might be qualified, visit the official Slipgate Ironworks site to learn more. Based on John's development history, I think it's fairly safe to say your job will be exciting and storied if nothing else. Michael McWhertor

Slipgate Jobs! [Planet Rome.ro]
Slipgate Ironworks Official Site

With an opened shirt and hair-band locks, John Romero looks back on Doom. And what's his 20-20 hindsight? He wishes he'd hired a better level designer, seemed happy with the original title and knew it was a hit when he saw the sales figures. When asked about his new company, Romero was tight-lipped and "crazy stealth" about his MMO. He claims that nobody is currently doing what he's working on, which probably means the game involves something about him making us his bitch. Or at least fail trying. Brian Ashcraft

Watch Here [Games.net]

Unfortunately, Gawd's Museum of Dissected Games doesn't cover bad games. It doesn't have a 'What Went Wrong' section. But it's a fascinating third-party resource of postmortems about some of our favorite retro games. Gawd, a developer himself, hacks apart old games in his spare time and writes what makes them tick. It's a new site, so the only postmortem available is Carmack & Romero's Dangerous Dave 2 but it's a fascinating, if slightly technical, read into a game many of us old schoolers have loved and forgotten. And check out those awesome Dave death animations!

We hope someone will follow this up with a spoof site, 'The Museum of Dissected Gamers'. There's a couple Kotaku commenters Eliza and I would like to submit. Florian Eckhardt

Gawd's Museum of Dissected Games

Now what's going to happen? You'll probably start seeing game data files becoming encrypted and the open door on assets getting slammed shut just to keep modders from financially screwing the company they should be helping. And the day a game company's file encryption is hacked to add porn and the case goes to the ESRB for review - that's when we'll see how well game companies are protected from these antics and what the courts will rule. Hopefully it'll be on the developer's side.

I'm pretty sure that's already happened. Isn't there a porn ROM hack of Super Mario Brothers?

Oblivion Re-Rated = Bad News [Planet Rome.ro]

The infamous John Romero — known for designing Doom but better known for (ha ha ha!) Daikatana and marrying an Eastern European teenager — has posted a petulant retort on his blog in response to a recent interview done with him on Computer and Video Games. In it, he is outraged that his friend Lane's name is misspelled as "Lain", positing "how many times have you seen that name spelled 'Lain'"? Realizing that it's not exactly the sort of name you hear outside of Missouri trailer parks, Romero then asserts that he never claimed that John Carmack and Adrian Carmack were lovers... sorry, we mean brothers. He also corrects Computer and Video Games for saying that he is working on an MMOG with an unnamed company. He does this by mentioning that the name of his company hasn't been announced yet.

Ladies, gentlemen — this is the sort of 'clarifying' one does when they are married at Chernobyl. Luckily, the interview John's so incensed about — despite the 'errors' — is a lot more interesting, detailing his early days at id and his work on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake.

Computer and Video Games Interview With John Romero
John Romero's 'corrections'