Retro Studios

Infobox Company
company_name = Retro Studios
company_
company_type = Subsidiary
foundation = 1998
location = Austin, Texas
key_people = Michael Kelbaugh, president
industry = computer and video game industry
products = "Metroid Prime" series games for Nintendo video game consoles
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees= around 60
parent = Nintendo
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.retrostudios.com/ www.retrostudios.com]

Retro Studios is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas, USA. It was founded in 1998 by Jeff Spangenberg as a second-party developer to Japan-based video game company Nintendo. It is currently wholly owned by Nintendo (thus a first-party developer), with about 60 employees.

History

Retro struggled in its early years, dealing with several cancelled projects and lay-offs. In 2000, Nintendo offered the company the license to the long-dormant "Metroid" franchise which proved to be a turning point for the company. The first big project that Retro Studios worked on with Nintendo was "Metroid Prime". This game would become one of the biggest titles for the Nintendo GameCube, receiving both critical and public acclaim. In 2001, then-president Jeff Spangenberg sold his share of stock in the company to Nintendo and left shortly thereafter. In 2003, Michael Kelbaugh was named president of Retro Studios. In 2004 Retro released ', which proved to be just as much of a critical success as the first game. Retro’s latest release is ' for the Wii, which was released towards the end of 2007 in North America and Europe. Soon after the release, Retro confirmed that they will be "taking a break" from the Metroid series.Mark Pacini at Yahoo! Games: “We are taking a break from Metroid series and from Samus.” [http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=1475790&cl=3873449 Source] (August 31, 2007)] It's unknown what they are currently working on. [ [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=171142 Wii News: Retro Studios takes a break from Metroid - ComputerAndVideoGames.com ] ]

On January 16, 2008 it was announced that one of Retro Studios' key programmers, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, had died of pancreatic cancer the previous day at age 43. Haigh-Hutchinson has been a senior engineer on all three of the studio's Metroid Prime games. [http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/845/845934p1.html IGN: Famed Industry Veteran, Retro Studios Programmer Dies] ]

In June, the main site was overhauled with a new layout, which had the benefits of making the site easier to navigate and decreasing page loading times.

In May of 2008 design director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller, and principal technology engineer Jack Mathews left Retro Studios. [ [http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52373 Key Metroid Prime Staff Leave Retro Studios - Shacknews] It was later revealed that the group formed Armature Studios with Electronic Arts. [ [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6197858.html?tag=result;title;0]

Games developed

Canceled projects

In Retro’s early days, they had several cancelled projects for the Nintendo GameCube.
*"Action Adventure"
*"Car Combat (Thunder Rally)"
*"NFL Retro Football"
*"Raven Blade"

Nintendo GameCube

*"Metroid Prime" (2002)
*"" (2004)

Nintendo DS

*"Metroid Prime Hunters (2006) (involved with art direction and general supervision, though actual development took place at NST)

Wii

*"" (2007)

ee also

*Intelligent Systems
*Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development

References

* [http://games.ign.com/objects/027/027154.html IGN’s Retro Studios page]
* [http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=335 N-Sider: "The Art of Prime" (November 18, 2002)]
* [http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=423 N-Sider: "A Retrospective: The Story of Retro Studios" (December 17, 2004)] (engl.) (Mirror available at [http://cube.ign.com/articles/574/574119p1.html] )
* [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6197858.html?tag=result;title;0]

External links

* [http://www.retrostudios.com Retro Studios official site]
* [http://www.n-retro.com N-Retro (Spanish Retro Studios site)]