Retro Studios senior designer leaves
Mike Wikan was one of the few Retro Studios employees who remained at the company since the early days. Starting as a senior designer on Metroid Prime, he pursued a similar role on the other two iterations of the trilogy. Later he was in charge of bosses and enemies in Donkey Kong Country Returns, which was released only last year. As of May 2011, Wikan has become lead game designer at id Software, best known for DOOM and Quake.
Wikan is the second senior designer who has left Retro Studios this year. Kynan Pearson, designer on MP2 and MP3, as well as an unreleased title, and level designer on DKCR, left to join 343 Industries in January already. The fate of the last senior designer, Tom Ivey, is currently unknown, he might still be at the company.
Retro Studios faced a similar situation when several key members who were responsible for the Metroid Prime trilogy left in early 2009, after quarrels between the studio leads and Nintendo Japan concerning the studio's future direction and creative freedom. While this proved to be a critical issue at Retro Studios with a Zelda spin-off and several original IPs directed at a more mature audience being rejected, the situation at another internal Nintendo studio was even worse. At NST, this led to major departures and a disassemblement of their console team.
However, it appears as if Nintendo has yet to understand that their Western studios require some creative freedom to ensure a low turnover rate and thus quality & consistency, as not all of Retro Studios' employees appeared to be satisfied with working on DKCR after working on Metroid Prime, much less with the prospect of working on another DKCR for Nintendo's next generation console WiiU.
Both old and new Retro employees may see these as a opportunity. When Nintendo CEO Iwata asked Pearson about his feelings when the Metroid Prime leads left, Pearson said:
"Well...it was, of course, hard when a few key members who had worked on the Metroid Prime series left, but I knew it was also a chance to introduce new ways of thinking and operating."
Retro Studios is currently helping on Mario Kart 7 for Nintendo 3DS.
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It's no surprise that both Pearson and Wikan left. I've heard of several Retro Studios employees that they were not very happy to be put on the DKC game, they wanted to take the direction many other Western studios pursued - but that's not what Nintendo Japan liked. These departures pretty much point towards DKCR2 though.
Mike Wikan was one of the few Retro Studios employees who remained at the company since the early days. Starting as a senior designer on Metroid Prime, he pursued a similar role on the other two iterations of the trilogy. Later he was in charge of bosses and enemies in Donkey Kong Country Returns, which was released only last year. As of May 2011, Wikan has become lead game designer at id Software, best known for DOOM and Quake.
Wikan is the second senior designer who has left Retro Studios this year. Kynan Pearson, designer on MP2 and MP3, as well as an unreleased title, and level designer on DKCR, left to join 343 Industries in January already. The fate of the last senior designer, Tom Ivey, is currently unknown, he might still be at the company.
Retro Studios faced a similar situation when several key members who were responsible for the Metroid Prime trilogy left in early 2009, after quarrels between the studio leads and Nintendo Japan concerning the studio's future direction and creative freedom. While this proved to be a critical issue at Retro Studios with a Zelda spin-off and several original IPs directed at a more mature audience being rejected, the situation at another internal Nintendo studio was even worse. At NST, this led to major departures and a disassemblement of their console team.
However, it appears as if Nintendo has yet to understand that their Western studios require some creative freedom to ensure a low turnover rate and thus quality & consistency, as not all of Retro Studios' employees appeared to be satisfied with working on DKCR after working on Metroid Prime, much less with the prospect of working on another DKCR for Nintendo's next generation console WiiU.
Both old and new Retro employees may see these as a opportunity. When Nintendo CEO Iwata asked Pearson about his feelings when the Metroid Prime leads left, Pearson said:
"Well...it was, of course, hard when a few key members who had worked on the Metroid Prime series left, but I knew it was also a chance to introduce new ways of thinking and operating."
Retro Studios is currently helping on Mario Kart 7 for Nintendo 3DS.
_______________________
It's no surprise that both Pearson and Wikan left. I've heard of several Retro Studios employees that they were not very happy to be put on the DKC game, they wanted to take the direction many other Western studios pursued - but that's not what Nintendo Japan liked. These departures pretty much point towards DKCR2 though.