Worrying rumours that Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios is in trouble are circulating the games industry this morning, with several sources claiming that key developers at the studio have been "escorted off the premises".
According to site ShackNews, design director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller, and principal technology engineer Jack Mathews were escorted out of the Nintendo-owned developer last Friday.
Maybe they left to form their own outfit, or maybe they let a stink bomb off in the gents toilets - either way it looks like something's going on at Retro, and we're hoping it's not set to become another name in the big shutdown studio list.
Thankfully though, Nintendo has smacked down speculation of a Retro closure, telling us via e-mail: "We still continue to work alongside the team at Retro and no official announcements as to its status have been made".
"All existing reports are rumour and speculation," a company spokesperson told CVG.
Nintendo purchased the developer in 2001, and after some infamous internal struggles, it pumped out the three excellent Metroid Prime games on GameCube and Wii.
The studio has now confirmed that it's working on unannounced Wii title - that's if it's still in business.
We've contacted Nintendo UK for comment, and will let you know when it gets back to us.
If this does in fact turn out to be true, Nintendo would be mad to close Retro Studios! Western studios are important in targeting western audiences, but Nintendo scaled back their operations after selling Rare and severing ties with Silicon Knights etc. I think Nintendo should do the opposite and expand its western studio operations.
Yeah, Rare kinda f**cked up their relationship with Nintendo, not the other way around. Rare would miss their release dates by over a year or more, and would crank out 1 game every 3 years. Their studio was and still is terrible for their delays. Hell, StarFox Assault was made by Namco, if memory serves me correctly, and was a MUCH better game than any of the Rare-made starfox games.
WHat a waste of money on Microsoft's part.
As for Silicon Knights, that was more Dennis Dyack's decision (head of SK) after Eternal Darkness. He wanted to make XB games, since it was a more popular system, so he kinda crapped all over Nintendo's 2nd party status with them. He became so difficult to work with and acted like a big baby to break off to become a 3rd party developer, that Nintendo basically didnt want to deal with SK anymore.
With the colossal flops that SK has come out with since then, again, not a major loss from Nintendo. Though I did love Eternal Darkness a LOT
I hope this isn't true. Retro are one of the only developers to prove the Wii can work with with conventional games...
Sure Nintendo said 'we still work alongside Retro Studios', but they didn't confirm or deny that some of the most important members of the company may have left...
With the colossal flops that SK has come out with since then, again, not a major loss from Nintendo. Though I did love Eternal Darkness a LOT
Sorry - which colossal flops would these be? SK haven't released anything - Too Human is due out this year, and we don't know how that's going to turn out.
Admittedly, that's a slow work-rate, as that game has been in development since the days of the Playstation 1, but I think to use the word "flops" is a touch inaccurate.
With the colossal flops that SK has come out with since then, again, not a major loss from Nintendo. Though I did love Eternal Darkness a LOT
Sorry - which colossal flops would these be? SK haven't released anything - Too Human is due out this year, and we don't know how that's going to turn out.
Admittedly, that's a slow work-rate, as that game has been in development since the days of the Playstation 1, but I think to use the word "flops" is a touch inaccurate.
Oh, my bad. I get Perfect Dark and Too Human crossed. Sorry, that was Rare with the flop =)
After how Nintendo treated Rare I would not be surprised if this is true, although I hope it is not!
What do u mean? Rare made a lot of money with Nintendo. Since beening with Microsort they are now a shadow of what they use to be!!!
More like Rare made a lot of money for Nintendo
Rare supposedly have more freedom at MS from what I've read.
So it was a touch of Nintendo magic that made their older games better? Developers may get bottomache over Ninty's involvement, but they know how to make a good game.
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