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Key Metroid Prime Staff Leave Retro Studios

V

Visualante

Member
avatar299 said:
So can the Retro closing rumors please die now?
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You do know that Retro has lost a lot of staff since Prime? It's barely Retro anymore.

If it is believed that other people were involved in this, which Surfer Girl alluded too then more people might be escorted off the premises.
 
G

Gamer @ Heart

Member
chase said:
:(

Hope Retro can keep up the quality.
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Those 3 men, while important, were not the soul of the company. The company is still full of talented people. They also have Nintendo and Shiggy breathing down their necks.

While i am sad to see anyone go, i am extremly happy to know Retro is still in one piece.
 
V

Visualante

Member
Crushed said:
Yes.
Click to expand...
Those rumours originated here, not Surfer Girl.

UPDATE FOUR: The proximate Shacknews says that Retro is not closing shop and corroborates the tale from the commenter about senior staff being escorted off premises, but I'm told from a few folks that that there is a general feeling of uneasiness in the Retro offices that could lead to more departures. The quote in the previous update is not meant to imply that relocation is going to happen, just that no Retro employees would relocate if Nintendo asked them to since there is no real incentive for them to so considering Nintendo's previous behavior. Giving extremely little autonomy does not create favorable sentiment. Also, if you are a developer that values creative freedom, avoid Nintendo.
Click to expand...
 
S

SunkisTim535

Member
I don't know why people think something "went down" and these guys were either forced out or quit. This kind of thing happens all the time, people prove their talent at a company and decide to start their own studio. Sometimes to good results and sometimes disastrous. Best of luck to them.
 
S

Somnid

Member
At jobs that house sensitive data, you are often "escorted" out due to security risks. It's not indicative of a dispute.
 
E

Epiphyte

Member
ivysaur12 said:
I'm interested for the first interview with them.
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You'll be waiting a long time

You usually get hit with some papers to sign insuring you don't say shit if you want to get any severance benefits.
 
J

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
AceBandage said:
Sorry, but seriously, Retro has already said their next title will be one that their fans should be excited for, so if it had ANYTHING to do with snowboarding on the Wii, it would be a snowboarding third person shooter set on the moon.
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I know what was said during the MP3 interviews, but after the rumors about NST and Project HAMMER actually getting canned came true, we don't know if NCL is doing something similar over at Retro. Why would key members of the studio just up and leave all at once?
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
jj984jj said:
I know what was said during the MP3 interviews, but after the rumors about NST and Project HAMMER actually getting canned came true, we don't know if NCL is doing something similar over at Retro. Why would key members of the studio just up and leave all at once?
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We dont know. What do you think if you are so qualified to speculate?
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
jj984jj said:
I know what was said during the MP3 interviews, but after the rumors about NST and Project HAMMER actually getting canned came true, we don't know if NCL is doing something similar over at Retro. Why would key members of the studio just up and leave all at once?
Click to expand...


The same reason it happens in any other company, they felt it was time to move on.
Also, Project Hammer needed to be canned. The only good thing about that tech demo were the textures.
NST would be much better off working on a new Wave Race.
 
J

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
HK-47 said:
We dont know. What do you think if you are so qualified to speculate?
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Based on Nintendo's direction this generation, how can you not? I did say I hope it doesn't mean that's what's happening, but how can you ignore the high possibility that they're now working on more casual titles?
 
P

Polari

Member
I know everyone's keen to paint Nintendo as the big bad guy in this case, but just remember who it was that was responsible for Retro getting their shit together in the first place. If Miyamoto hadn't gone all Darth Vader on their asses we'd probably be playing a sub-Vigilante 8 clone right now.
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
jj984jj said:
Based on Nintendo's direction this generation, how can you not? I did say I hope it doesn't mean that's what's happening, but how can you ignore the high possibility that they're now working on more casual titles?
Click to expand...


Yeah, I know I mean, they're are pumping out casual games left and right like WiiFit and WiiSports and................................................................
Yeah.
 
C

CartridgeBlower

Member
Man, very strange. It's interesting to compare Retro to a place like Insomniac. Both work exclusively for the system maker and both produce phenomenal games -- yet one is considered 1 of the 10 greatest small business to work at by Fortune Magazine, and the other has been consistently falling apart for the past two years. Has to make you wonder what the key differences are between the two companies...
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
jj984jj said:
Based on Nintendo's direction this generation, how can you not? I did say I hope it doesn't mean that's what's happening, but how can you ignore the high possibility that they're now working on more casual titles?
Click to expand...

Based on what direction? All the casual shit is handled internally by Nintendo. This is how stupid rumors are started. You know nothing
 
Z

Zeenbor

Member
CartridgeBlower said:
Man, very strange. It's interesting to compare Retro to a place like Insomniac. Both work exclusively for the system maker and both produce phenomenal games -- yet one is considered 1 of the 10 greatest small business to work at by Fortune Magazine, and the other has been consistently falling apart for the past two years. Has to make you wonder what the key differences are between the two companies...
Click to expand...

Big difference is that Insomniac isn't owned by Sony. That has a lot to do as to why Retro is supposedly not a nice company to work for.
 
J

Johnas

Member
As a fan of the Metroid Prime subseries, this doesn't really bother me at all.

If anything, it might increase the probability that the next title won't show too much influence from the Prime games. Not that we even know what the next game will be, but I really want it to be something fresh and unique.
 
T

TheGrayGhost

Banned
AceBandage said:
Yeah, I know I mean, they're are pumping out casual games left and right like WiiFit and WiiSports and................................................................
Yeah.
Click to expand...

-WiiSports
-WiiPlay
-Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
-WiiFit

Nintendo's internal "non-games," as far as I'm aware. All good games, and I recommend them to anyone with some cash to spend. Tanks! on Wii Play is so, so awesome.

It's a shame Mark Pacini left. He directed both MP2:E and MP3: C.
 
W

wsippel

Banned
jj984jj said:
I know what was said during the MP3 interviews, but after the rumors about NST and Project HAMMER actually getting canned came true, we don't know if NCL is doing something similar over at Retro. Why would key members of the studio just up and leave all at once?
Click to expand...
As far as I know, HAMMER was canceled because it sucked, not because NCL needed the ressources to produce more casual games.
 
C

Crushed

Fry Daddy
Wii said:
I'm not too fussed, MP3 was a letdown pretty much.
Click to expand...
emot-colbert.gif
 
N

nestea

Member
Guess they got tired of working for a Japanese company. Wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
nestea said:
Guess they got tired of working for a Japanese company. Wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.
Click to expand...

Cause the Japanese suck right? What does that even mean?
 
N

nestea

Member
HK-47 said:
Cause the Japanese suck right? What does that even mean?
Click to expand...

Don't take it personally, they just do business differently than us. A western studio operating under a conservative Japanese company like Nintendo would probably be frustrating at times.
 
J

JasonUresti

Member
Look forward to seeing where these guys end up. All three clearly are very talented individuals and leaders of their departments.
 
I

Innotech

Banned
Polari said:
I know everyone's keen to paint Nintendo as the big bad guy in this case, but just remember who it was that was responsible for Retro getting their shit together in the first place. If Miyamoto hadn't gone all Darth Vader on their asses we'd probably be playing a sub-Vigilante 8 clone right now.
Click to expand...
this is true.

If I were to speculate on what happened its likely that some major creative differences caused personnel to leave. Especially in nintendos case. For big franchise gamesl ike Metroid, its nintendos way or the highway, and thats understandable, since it is after all Nintendos reputation and the franchise popularity at stake. If they were developing a brand new IP Im sure Nintendo wouldnt be quite so strict on the guidelines of how to do it. But Metroid has a particular level of game design that has to live up to the rest of the series. I think Retro did a great job of taking it in a fresh direction. The Prime trilogy is one of my favorite nintendo series in the past few gens.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
UPDATE FOUR: The proximate Shacknews says that Retro is not closing shop and corroborates the tale from the commenter about senior staff being escorted off premises, but I'm told from a few folks that that there is a general feeling of uneasiness in the Retro offices that could lead to more departures. The quote in the previous update is not meant to imply that relocation is going to happen, just that no Retro employees would relocate if Nintendo asked them to since there is no real incentive for them to so considering Nintendo's previous behavior. Giving extremely little autonomy does not create favorable sentiment. Also, if you are a developer that values creative freedom, avoid Nintendo.
Click to expand...

Where is this quote from? This is extremely disturbing.
 
G

Gamer @ Heart

Member
nestea said:
Don't take it personally, they just do business differently than us. A western studio operating under a conservative Japanese company like Nintendo would probably be frustrating at times.
Click to expand...

If by conservative you mean open minded and experimental then yeah, i can see Nintendo being called that
 
S

Stormbringer

Member
TrueReligion said:
This is terrible news. devastating
Click to expand...

This truly is. I guess all we can hope is that this event is less damaging for the studio itself and the cohesion of the remaining staff that our first impression would lead us to believe. But for a reason, I feel pessimistic about that... Anyway, whatever the departing staff decides to do next, I hope they gather an awesome team, and get to work on some awesome games. They really deserve that.
 
C

CartridgeBlower

Member
But Insomniac is kind of owned by Sony...they've never made a game for any other system. Is the autonomy they carry over Sony, as little as it seems, really the difference between them and Retro? I guess it could be. But man, Retro is a mess. Nintendo has other studios that produce successful games that don't self-implode. But I guess Retro has always had a spotty history with Nintendo. Crazy.
 
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