RUMOR - Retro's Wii U title facing rocky development, Nin...

[nphan]

Rumours are rumours, but I don't know what to make with the assertion that Nintendo isn't improving on the talent that left. We have no clue as to the skill level of the new hirings or if they are being utilized effectively for the new project, whatever that may be. A lot of the Metroid talk seems to be conjecture on the part of her sources though, so we may never know the what full story is on that.
Retro has had trouble before, and they seemed to be able to come out of it okay, though I do hope we learn what the Wii U project will be sooner than later.

[Emily Rogers]

I agree. I actually don't mind the criticism.

I'm actually okay with many people not trusting me.

For whats it worth, I think the article I wrote at least tells people which Retro studios employees are no longer part of the company. And I think that's educational from a game industry perspective. It gives extra insight into what has happened to Retro Studio's staff over the years.

I'm curious to know more about the Metroid stuff myself. That is the part that really doesn't make sense to me. Plus, it's something I'm sure a lot of people would love to know. The way it's phrased in your article is that the series is bigger than Retro or anyone else, but yet the last Metroid game released was by and large dictated by 1 person, at least that's the perception that was given. I find that to be a contradiction.

Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Nintendo originally thought they could still get Retro Studios to do a Metroid Prime 4 even after all of those people left.

But Retro didn't want to do Metroid Prime 4 one year after all of those MP Trilogy designers/engineers/artists had left. Retro felt the timing was way too soon and would be disrespectful to those employees who left.

With most of the MP staff gone, Retro decided to move onto a different franchise (DKC) because they could start fresh with a new staff (they recruited a lot of new members to Retro when DKC Returns began development).

Nintendo didn't want the mass amount of employees leaving to bring the Metroid series to a halt. They didn't want a bunch of people leaving to decide Metroid's fate.

[Emily Rogers]

When I say "No designer or engineer is bigger than Metroid", I mean Nintendo doesn't want the absense of employees/staff to decide the fate of an entire series.

[Rezbit]

Hi, this is my first post. This article inspired me to create an account. I'm very passionate about all things Nintendo and especially Metroid and Retro Studios. I read over Emily's article and just wanted to point out two mistakes. She said Kynan Pearson, Tom Ivey, and Mike Wikan, the lead designers on DKCR were with Retro studios since Metroid Prime 1. This is false. Only Mike Wikan was credited for MP1. I think she is trying to make this sound worse than it actually is.

If you look at the credits between all of Retro's games, you will see that quite a few names not there from the previous game, but quite a few new names as well. All of this hiring and leaving has happened in between each game, though it is just more easily known to people now because of how much more information we get on the internet.

While it's true that they are quite a different team since their beginnings, Retro still has a decent core of people still with the company since MP1:

Producer: Ryan Harris
Artists: Ryan Powell, Elben Schafers, Chris Voellmann, Chuck Crist, Luis Ramierez
Animation: Dax Pallotta, Derek Bonikowski, Stephen Zafros
Engineering: Alex Quinones, Jim Gage, Akintunde Omitowoju
Operations: Al Artus, George Thomas
Sound: Frank Bry

So that's one producer, five artists, three animators, three engineers, two operations, and a sound designer equalling 15 people still there, or about 25% of the original Metroid Prime team. There is almost 30 people there who worked on Echoes and almost 45 who worked on Corruption.

[Taxidous]

@Emily Rogers a lot of those seem pretty obvious

And, in my opinion, of course, your ignorance seems pretty obvious.

[LegendofSantiago]

@Rezbit Welcome to GoNintendo and thanks for sharing that tid-bit

[HylianHeroLOZ]

I kinda feel like i could see nintendo trying to strong arm retro in a way that could create some problems. From even some of the developer interviews during dkcr it seemed like their were many things the japanese devs would not budge on or didnt agree with, not to say retro themselves couldnt have been a bit unruly as well, but the higher ups at nintendo will always have the final say.

[WrathOfSamus777]

I call B.S. Emily Rogers made all kinds of big claims about E3 2011 and what would be there and she fell flat on her face.

[Emily Rogers]

Hi, this is my first post. This article inspired me to create an account. I'm very passionate about all things Nintendo and especially Metroid and Retro Studios. I read over Emily's article and just wanted to point out two mistakes. She said Kynan Pearson, Tom Ivey, and Mike Wikan, the lead designers on DKCR were with Retro studios since Metroid Prime 1. This is false. Only Mike Wikan was credited for MP1. I think she is trying to make this sound worse than it actually is.

Thanks for catching that. I'll edit my article and give you credit for catching that. And no, I have no intention to make things sound worse than they are.

I think for the most part, the list of names is pretty accurate. Sometimes it's difficult to catch every little detail about an employees life (especially when you're listing a huge list of people).

[LegendofSantiago]

@Taxidous Geeze, thanks a lot. I'm not saying that she made those up but they seemed pretty likely to happen.

[fk]

I agree. I actually don't mind the criticism.

I'm actually okay with many people not trusting me.

For whats it worth, I think the article I wrote at least tells people which Retro studios employees are no longer part of the company. And I think that's educational from a game industry perspective. It gives extra insight into what has happened to Retro Studio's staff over the years.

I'm curious to know more about the Metroid stuff myself. That is the part that really doesn't make sense to me. Plus, it's something I'm sure a lot of people would love to know. The way it's phrased in your article is that the series is bigger than Retro or anyone else, but yet the last Metroid game released was by and large dictated by 1 person, at least that's the perception that was given. I find that to be a contradiction.

Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Nintendo originally thought they could still get Retro Studios to do a Metroid Prime 4 even after all of those people left.

But Retro didn't want to do Metroid Prime 4 one year after all of those MP Trilogy designers/engineers/artists had left. Retro felt the timing was way too soon and would be disrespectful to those employees who left.

With most of the MP staff gone, Retro decided to move onto a different franchise (DKC) because they could start fresh with a new staff (they recruited a lot of new members to Retro when DKC Returns began development).

Nintendo didn't want the mass amount of employees leaving to bring the Metroid series to a halt. They didn't want a bunch of people leaving to decide Metroid's fate.

No offense, but this still doesn't add up to me. Nintendo released the Metroid Prime Trilogy disc in 2009, calling it a trilogy officially, and then wanted to make another Metroid a year after? And Retro didn't want to do that, so they did DKCR? And you say people are still leaving...are they protesting, or what? And what are they protesting...is Nintendo still trying to get them to do Metroid Prime 4?

Edit: Also, they didn't want a development team or studio to hang up Metroid, so they made the arguably craptacular Metroid: Other M with another studio?

[Broken_Cartridge]

No offense, but this still doesn't add up to me. Nintendo released the Metroid Prime Trilogy disc in 2009, calling it a trilogy officially, and then wanted to make another Metroid a year after? And Retro didn't want to do that, so they did DKCR? And you say people are still leaving...are they protesting, or what? And what are they protesting...is Nintendo still trying to get them to do Metroid Prime 4?

You aren't paying complete attention then. She never said it was after Metroid Prime Trilogy (as in the disc collection) released, she said it was after the Trilogy (as in Prime 3) was finished that the remaining employees didn't think it right to make a fourth so soon.

[Rezbit]

Hi, this is my first post. This article inspired me to create an account. I'm very passionate about all things Nintendo and especially Metroid and Retro Studios. I read over Emily's article and just wanted to point out two mistakes. She said Kynan Pearson, Tom Ivey, and Mike Wikan, the lead designers on DKCR were with Retro studios since Metroid Prime 1. This is false. Only Mike Wikan was credited for MP1. I think she is trying to make this sound worse than it actually is.

Thanks for catching that. I'll edit my article and give you credit for catching that. And no, I have no intention to make things sound worse than they are.

I think for the most part, the list of names is pretty accurate. Sometimes it's difficult to catch every little detail about an employees life (especially when you're listing a huge list of people).

Fair enough. I just thought it might also be worth mentioning that significant portions of staff were lost and gained between MP1 and MP2 and between MP2 and MP3.

[fk]

No offense, but this still doesn't add up to me. Nintendo released the Metroid Prime Trilogy disc in 2009, calling it a trilogy officially, and then wanted to make another Metroid a year after? And Retro didn't want to do that, so they did DKCR? And you say people are still leaving...are they protesting, or what? And what are they protesting...is Nintendo still trying to get them to do Metroid Prime 4?

You aren't paying complete attention then. She never said it was after Metroid Prime Trilogy (as in the disc collection) released, she said it was after the Trilogy (as in Prime 3) was finished that the remaining employees didn't think it right to make a fourth so soon.

Whatever. I still don't buy that Nintendo wanted Retro to start on a Metroid Prime 4 after completing the 3rd game. That doesn't make sense from a business perspective (oversaturation) and having a studio only work on one series for that long. Nintendo would know better than to have one of their top studios to work with basically one franchise for over 10 years.

[Triforce of the Gods]

Retro has lost and gained employees between every game they've worked on. A lot of the bigger names for Prime 1 weren't even there for Prime 2, so I doubt why that would suddenly be an issue after 3.

[deuxhero]

So no one else caught that the employees are supposedly going to a studio that is is dead in the water?

[Emily Rogers]

Retro has lost and gained employees between every game they've worked on. A lot of the bigger names for Prime 1 weren't even there for Prime 2, so I doubt why that would suddenly be an issue after 3.

It's not just about the number of people to be concerned about.

It's about the type of people you're losing. A lot of designers/engineers who left had the biggest influence Metroid Prime trilogy.

[KingBroly]

When I say "No designer or engineer is bigger than Metroid", I mean Nintendo doesn't want the absense of employees/staff to decide the fate of an entire series.

I understand that after an 8-year gap from Super to Prime/Fusion they wouldn't want a huge gap between games. But what about now? From what I can see, Metroid doesn't have a home right now. The situation seems awfully similar, and almost seems self-inflicted.

[ArchedThunder]

When has she been spot-on? I remember last year all she did was spew lies.

Can't say I'll be right on every single rumor. No insider is.

But all of my rumors came before E3 2011. Before we knew a single thing about the system.

I said Pikmin 3 was moving to Project Cafe before any site or Miyamoto said it was.
I said New Super Mario Bros was coming to 3DS.
I said a lot of 360/PS3 ports were coming.
I said Ubisoft is throwing a ton of support, with at least 2 games.
I said Project Cafe was getting a big FPS. Then you saw Killer Freaks/Zombie U.
I said Project Cafe was getting no harddrive.

Yes I said Soul Calibur was coming to Wii U, but it turned out to be Tekken. Both are Namco fighters. But I talk to business people, not developers. They don't know the difference between fighting franchises. You can't expect me to get every single thing correct.

Don't just nitpick me on the things I'm wrong about. I got a lot of things correct.

A lot of people take it out on me that I posted some fake screenshots. First of all, someone was pranking me, and I apologized to everyone. I have no intentions to lie about anything. If that apology is not good enough, then so be it.

You want a liar? Go look at Paul Gale and his TMNT/Rocksteady and Starfox/Metroid rumors.

Most of my rumors have been spot on.

That's stuff anyone could have guessed. I think you are full of shovel.

[Taxidous]

Whatever. I still don't buy that Nintendo wanted Retro to start on a Metroid Prime 4 after completing the 3rd game. That doesn't make sense from a business perspective (oversaturation) and having a studio only work on one series for that long. Nintendo would know better than to have one of their top studios to work with basically one franchise for over 10 years.

haha Whatever. What about the Zelda team, that's been working on the franchise for many years and will probably still be doing so many years down the road?

[Broken_Cartridge]

No offense, but this still doesn't add up to me. Nintendo released the Metroid Prime Trilogy disc in 2009, calling it a trilogy officially, and then wanted to make another Metroid a year after? And Retro didn't want to do that, so they did DKCR? And you say people are still leaving...are they protesting, or what? And what are they protesting...is Nintendo still trying to get them to do Metroid Prime 4?

You aren't paying complete attention then. She never said it was after Metroid Prime Trilogy (as in the disc collection) released, she said it was after the Trilogy (as in Prime 3) was finished that the remaining employees didn't think it right to make a fourth so soon.

Whatever. I still don't buy that Nintendo wanted Retro to start on a Metroid Prime 4 after completing the 3rd game. That doesn't make sense from a business perspective (oversaturation) and having a studio only work on one series for that long. Nintendo would know better than to have one of their top studios to work with basically one franchise for over 10 years.

I'm not saying I believe her (It makes no difference if she's right or wrong...it's the way the industry works), but your defense against it certainly isn't that great. "Over saturation"? Really? You mean like releasing 2 New Super Mario Bros. games in the same year? That kind of over saturation? Oh wait, I'm sorry, it wouldn't be that kind of over saturation because it would take 2 years to make the next Metroid and there would be a gap of time in between.

[HammerGalladeBro]

Sorry, but I won't believe rumors involving Retro until we get cncrete information.
I don't want the amount of rumors involving Retro became as ridiculous as the amount of Wii U rumors.

[Taxidous]

That's stuff anyone could have guessed. I think you are full of shovel.

Sorry... your rudeness is offensive even to me. So if anyone could have guessed those... did you?

...

[Rezbit]

No offense, but this still doesn't add up to me. Nintendo released the Metroid Prime Trilogy disc in 2009, calling it a trilogy officially, and then wanted to make another Metroid a year after? And Retro didn't want to do that, so they did DKCR? And you say people are still leaving...are they protesting, or what? And what are they protesting...is Nintendo still trying to get them to do Metroid Prime 4?

You aren't paying complete attention then. She never said it was after Metroid Prime Trilogy (as in the disc collection) released, she said it was after the Trilogy (as in Prime 3) was finished that the remaining employees didn't think it right to make a fourth so soon.

Whatever. I still don't buy that Nintendo wanted Retro to start on a Metroid Prime 4 after completing the 3rd game. That doesn't make sense from a business perspective (oversaturation) and having a studio only work on one series for that long. Nintendo would know better than to have one of their top studios to work with basically one franchise for over 10 years.

I don't think it has anything to do with oversaturation... Metroid Prime was always meant to be a trilogy. Even before Pacini, Keller, and Mathews left, it was well known that they were taking a break from Metroid. And it's not like Nintendo would have just let them decide that on their own.

[luigi_owns]

If you can find out what game they are making I'll believe you