John Romero

This month, on Doom's 30th anniversary, PC Gamer gets world-exclusive access to SIGIL II, the brand new sixth episode for the iconic shooter designed by the original Doom Guy himself, John Romero. SIGIL II is Doom's most devilishly devious campaign yet, and we speak with Romero about his journey back to creating content for the legendary FPS, what the new episode offers PC gamers, and what his thoughts are on Doom's legacy today in 2023.

There was a 16-year gap between the 1990 release of Final Fantasy III on Famicom and its 2006 remake on Nintendo DS, and a 31-year gap before the Pixel Remaster brought something more akin to the original game to a new platform. That might be because the original game's legendary programmer was so good nobody could replicate his code.

David Gaider, the creator of Dragon Age's setting, has spoken out against the current state of the games industry, and the "fear" developers have of needing to crunch to make enormous games as if it's the only way forward. He believes that "it doesn't have to be that way," but that if it did, "maybe the industry deserves to die."

From to to, the FPS genre has defined a wide array of video games. id Software, the developer behind,, and is regularly credited with creating the first-person shooter, as those games are seen as the granddaddies of the genre. The history of FPS games doesn't begin with id Software's most successful titles, however, and diving into the games that actually created the genre reveals a much longer path to market domination.

Deviation Games, the new studio partnered with PlayStation, has shut down just a few years after saying its Sony collaboration would bring "complete financial security." 

The studio behind science fiction thriller Deliver Us The Moon and last year's sequel Deliver Us Mars is laying off four employees, even after its co-founders gave up their salaries for the "past few months" to minimize damage.

On the heels of 670 layoffs at EA, merely the latest publisher to add to a dizzying list of thousands of game developers put out of work in the past year – hell, in the past two months alone – FPS legend and veritable Doom man John Romero reckons this is an unprecedented dip for the games industry. 

It's all a bit Doom-y at the moment, what with the seminal first-person shooter having just celebrated its 30th anniversary this past weekend. And with perfect timing, original Doom designer John Romero has released Sigil 2, the follow-up to his 2019 unofficial Doom episode, which is available now as a free download for consoles and PC.

New Blood Interactive have released a free HD DLC remaster for their reputation-making retro FPS Dusk, almost five years to the day since the original shooter launched on Steam. Honestly, the idea of remastering an alt-history "199X"-style homage to Half-Life and Doom does a number on my sense of time - which multiversal branch are we in now? Still, those gibbable demon Klansters certainly look swish. Find a comparison trailer below:

Doom co-creator John Romero has marked the seminal FPS’ 30th anniversary by releasing his second unofficial campaign for the hell-shooter. Sigil 2 follows on from Romero’s previous expansion for the Doom engine - released in 2019 for its quarter-century celebrations - by adding nine new levels that you can go and grab for free right now.

Upon its release, Doom established itself as a blueprint for the then-new first-person shooter genre. Going on to become one of the most iconic PC games in all existence, id Software’s FPS retains its legacy as it turns 30 years old.

There have been tons of grand celebrations around Doom's 30th Birthday, but one fan has decided to scour the internet and find every single way you could play the classic first-person shooter. 

Doom is 30 years old, and some old fans of the game are going to help us party.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the launch of Doom, id Software co-founders John Carmack and John Romero reunited to talk about the legendary FPS. The discussion was moderated by David Craddock (The FPS Documentary, Long Live Mortal Kombat), with interview questions from Craddock and the Twitch chat.

The original DOOM is 30 years old now. That means it has been a little over thirty years since Nintendo turned down Id’s offer to port their games to the PC and began a chain reaction that would result in Carmack, Romero, and co. creating the FPS genre. Thanks, Nintendo!

Neil Druckmann is expected to appear live to receive the Andrew Yoon Legend Award at the 2024 New York Game Awards.

The '90s were weird, man. Nowadays our celebrity game devs leave the beef and drama to streamers, but things could get heated back in the day. One of PC Gamer's very own "Game Gods" from the class of 2000, Cliff Bleszinski, recently dished a little on that heady time in an interview with IGN, particularly on how hard the former Epic developer was gunning for id and Ion Storm co-founder John Romero.

December 10 will be the 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking FPS Doom, and to mark the big day two of the driving forces behind the game, John Carmack and John Romero, will be taking part in a livestreamed discussion moderated by videogame historian David Craddock about one of the most influential videogames of all time.

To my amazement, this month - September 2023 - marks my 40th year in game development. I’m not sure how I’ve survived so long in a business that more typically burns people out in... somewhat less, let’s just say. That said, I have some thoughts about survival and an urge to tell the story of how I today find myself one of the most long-lived veterans still actively involved in making games. There may be a few older geezers still working, I guess, but most of you who want to chime in with an arthritic “But I’ve been doing this longer than you” or “You’re a young whipper-snapper next to me” are probably big deals on the business side - C-suite types. If you’ve worked more than 40 years and are still actually working with teams to make games, let me know. We can hang out and talk about our lumbago.

Classic Doom (both the first and second entries) will never die. Even co-creator John Romero still plays them. Much of this longevity can be attested to the modding community, and there’s one that will definitely appeal to you roguelike fans.

Since its release in 1993, id Software's DOOM franchise has become one of modern gaming's most easily recognizable IPs. The series has sold more than 10 million copies to date and spawned myriad RPG spinoffs, film adaptations and even a couple tabletop board games. But the first game's debut turned out to be a close thing, id Software cofounder John Romero describes in an excerpt from his new book DOOM GUY: Life in First Person. With a mere month before DOOM was scheduled for release in December 1993, the iD team found itself still polishing and tweaking lead programmer John Carmack's novel peer-to-peer multiplayer architecture, ironing out level designs — at a time when the studio's programmers were also its QA team — and introducing everybody's favorite killer synonym to the gamer lexicon. 

After news of Volition's closing, Saints Row fans are mourning their beloved franchise as well as the 2022 game's second major patch.

We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Summit Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of «Playing the Edge.» Apply to speak  here  and learn more about sponsorship opportunities  here . 

I’ve never really gotten elbow-deep into the Quake series. Before the 2021 Quake remaster by Nightdive Studios, I was actually most familiar with Quake 4, and I really don’t remember that much about it. In 1996, I was into Duke Nukem 3D. And then after that, it was Goldeneye 007. I at least played Quake 2… The N64 version.

What are you reading this for? Nightdive’s rumored remaster of Quake II has been released, and you might already own it if you already had a version of Quake II on Steam or something. If the PC version is too good for you, then it’s also available on Xbox, Switch, and PlayStation platforms. What am I even writing this for?

Not only can you get Quake 2 (as well as other classic FPS games) for cheap at the moment, but there’s a rumor that a remaster of id Software’s classic could be announced soon. If you thought the era of remakes, remasters, and reboots was over, think again.

Since I first saw it back in 2022, Solium Infernum has consistently captured my imagination. A strategy game set in a classic, Dante-inspired version of Hell, it casts you as one of several ‘Archfiends’ as they fight, debate, and conspire to take over the infernal throne now that Lucifer has gone missing. Civilization, Age of Empires, and more bureaucratically centered strategy sims like Tropico are clear reference points, but there’s an affection and an energy in Solium Infernum’s fire and brimstone aesthetic that comes right from John Romero’s Doom designs.

Back in the ’90s, id Software was the gaming company, responsible for bringing the world Doom and Quake. Two of the founding members of that company were John Carmack and John Romero, both now considered giants in their field.

To many, id Software co-founders John Carmack and John Romero were the Lennon and McCartney of videogames: Their friendship was strained to the breaking point by creative friction, but the work they did together literally changed the world. They've both done good stuff since then, but, well… it's not quite the same, is it? But while some deeply committed fans may have dreamed that the passage of time would enable them to come together again to work on a new masterpiece, Carmack recently said on Twitter that it ain't gonna happen.

Older gamers will immediately recognize John Romero by his luscious long locks, but even if you’re too young to recognize one of the Masters of Doom, you’ve no doubt come in contact with one of his many contributions to the video game industry. With a portfolio of iconic titles, including Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Wolfenstein 3D, and Quake, John Romero and the folks at id Software crafted what we now know as the modern first-person shooter, and along with it, normalized online multiplayer action, modding, and an entire lexicon of terms found in just about every game today. Yes, you can even thank him for the term “deathmatch”.

John Romero has revealed the release details for Sigil 2.

This month PC Gamer gets world-exclusive access to the fantasy RPG of the decade – Baldur's Gate III. It's been over 20 years since Baldur's Gate II, so to get the inside scoop PC Gamer traveled to Larian Studios in Ghent, Belgium, to chat to its developers about just how they've gone about bringing this mighty PC gaming series back from the dead. With never-before-seen images, revealing developer commentary, and over 13 hours of extended hands-on time with the game, this is the ultimate Baldur's Gate III feature.

Older gamers will recall legendary developer John Romero’s immortal words when he was promoting his new game (new for 2000, at least) Daikatana. Sadly (or perhaps not), no one was made to feel like the Doom co-creators “bitch,” and his first release after leaving id Software proved to be a flop.

Doom, Wolfenstein, and Quake co-creator John Romero says that he “supports” a remake of 2000 shooter Daikatana. Developed at Ion Storm, after Romero parted ways with id Software, Daikatana struggled commercially and critically. Now, Romero says that he would be willing to “consult” on a hypothetical remake, while also discussing his upcoming FPS game, built in Unreal Engine 5, his future Doom WADs, and his relationship with id co-founder John Carmack.