Shacknews: Key staff leave Metroid Prime dev Retro Studios
Staff members said to have been escorted off the premises last Friday include design director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller and principal technology engineer Jack Matthews. There's no word yet on what their futures entail, but Shacknews notes that Retro Studios is in no danger of closing. Which is just as well, really, since we're in no danger of not wanting more games from them. We'll let you know when we hear more on this subject.
Update: There's some unconfirmed gossip from mysterious dealer in rumors, Surfer Girl, who mentioned that "something definitely went down at Retro" in a post dated Sunday, April 20th. An unnamed individual is quoted in the post as saying, "Pretty much no one at retro would agree to relocate at nintendo's behest, as asinine shenanigans are typically met with little fanfare."
Add your comments
Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.
When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags.














(Page 1) Reader Comments
Reply
*cries*
Reply
Scan Visor Reference FTW!
So they were fired?
Reply
as for the three people leaving, I wish them the best of luck and sucess in thier future endeavors.
Reply
Take the guys over at N-Space, combined them with the remaining staff from Retro and problem solved. No loss in gaming quality.
Say what you will about Geist, that was one hell of a first effort from those start up boys down in Orlando.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Space
More like, last desperate attempt. Still a good game though, especially when you factor in most of their priors.
Totally agree that it was a great first game though / good game. I'm officially interested in their Next original project, whenever they chose to announce it.
Reply
Now, with Metroid, I can't possibly imagine a situation where watching anybody play any of the entries in the series would seem fun. However, give the game a shot, and you'll see that it's the best out of the series. Perhaps not as revolutionary as the first Prime game, but the best in the series, easily.
Wii Prime tried to provide a mouse-like control scheme based on the Wii remote. It's actually not that bad. I set it to the highest sensitivity and lowest deadzone (which I am used to doing with mousing in FPSs), because I was hoping that even if it was difficult to keep the camera steady at first, I would get used to it and it would pay off with more precise aiming. I was right. The only problem I've had with that control interface is that if I move the Wiimote too far it loses the IR lights and the camera will continue to drift until the Wiimote reaquires the IR lights which could take up to an annoying half-second. But that's more of a hardware limitation that you can't blame Retro or really Nintendo for.
If you expected next-gen graphics, you obviously don't understand what Nintendo's goals are or what they're trying to do with the Wii. While Sony and Microsoft are focused on safely sticking with what has worked for them in the past, Nintendo is experimenting with new control schemes and gameplay ideas. It's your decision who you want to buy products from, whether it be none, all three, one, or two. I personally love what Nintendo has been doing with the Wii so far. To be fair it's only partly because of the new things... Nintendo continually puts out great first-party titles.
Now of course my opinion is my own, but I think there is enough clear evidence that Nintendo is doing something right since many people STILL have problems finding new Wii consoles almost a year and a half since it was first released.
*I reference this cause I just played it for 1st time 2 days ago and I'm addicted now but before I didn't think I'd want to buy it - now I do.
However, they made three of the best games in recent memory, so they will be missed
Reply
If they really were "escorted off the premesis" this story is leaving out some VERY important details
Reply
Or so the legend goes. The internet seems to be failing to back this up
Reply
But still...
Slow loading time reference FTW!
:P
As for the guys that were let go, MP3 is a helluva thing to have on your resume, I bet they will be fine
Reply
Bring on a new team to re-re-invent it, before they get stuck in a rut with the same game model in a fourth title.
Reply
MP was of the few great and diferent series N had ,being a shooter,kinda more mature and in a great style.
Why cant the party/shovelware/wagglesthings devs quit instead lol?
Reply
Seriously, though, the requirements to work for them or one of their wholly owned studios are staggering
The Commander says Damn!
Jokes aside, It was great...one of the only Nintendo games that can turn into a mature game. They could add realistic blood, sexy Samus, etc.
But...I don't think I would trust someone who goes by Surfer Girl for your rumor answers(No offence to Surfer Girl though)
Reply
/runs
Reply
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Controversy at one of my favorite companies of all time = sad Phil.
Reply
These 3 people won't be out of work for long.
Reply
Read headline; got depressed
Reply
Did they make something else? I thought that was the ONLY thing they are known for, or even did.
Reply
However, all of their unique works in progress were scrapped to make room for Metroid Prime back in 2000