According to The Journal, the funding pull came just a day after Romero Games - which is headed up by Doom creator John Romero - met with Microsoft executives.

The outlet reported the Galway-based studio employed more than 100 people, combining in-house staff and external contractors, and now all have been laid off.

A source told The Journal: “Everyone is out of a job. We had meetings with the publisher the day before this happened, there was no mention of it.”

The source added: “We're trying to find other ways of funding the project. But for now, it's completely closed, and the studio is closed.”

After Microsoft pulled funding for Romero Games’ next project, Brenda Romero - who is married to John - announced on social media: “Last night, we learned that our publisher has canceled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects at other studios. 

“This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control. 

“This absolutely isn’t a reflection of our team’s work, performance, or the quality of the project itself. We hit every milestone on time, every time, consistently received high praise, and easily passed all our internal gates.” 

This comes after Microsoft announced it would be going through more cuts, including studio closures, layoffs and project cancellations under Xbox Game Studios.

It is estimated this round of layoffs has affected around 9,000 employees, with the likes of The Initiative, Turn 10 and Raven Software all being hit hard by redundancies.