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“America’s version of RARE” they called them, “the new king to Nintendo’s second part throne” they claimed. But so I ask how did Retro Studios turn out to be one of the greatest disasters in recent video game history.
Set up at 1835A Kramer Lane in Austin Texas, Retro studios consisted of the best from various different companies, Capcom, Acclaim and even RARE. Since retired Howard Linton once said:
“We have other companies that we are making strategic investments in, but we’re very careful to limit those investments to really first class developers Retro Studios comes to mind, companies like that.”
Nintendo had a high profile of the new western company; they funded their move to a larger 40,000 square foot office and even gave them the rights to make a high profile Nintendo title, Metroid. Everything this company did was high profile, even when they chose Vicon 8 as their optical motion capture system Internet sites and magazines everywhere thought the need to report it. On September 17th 1999 it was revealed that on the launch day of the Gamecube (then called Dolphin) that Retro Studios would have 5 launch games ready! These games included Raven Blade an RPG with great prospects, Metroid Prime although this was still a secret, Car Combat (Thunder Rally) and NFL Retro Football. It was all looking rosy for this new next generation games company with support from the major giant that is Nintendo.
And then everything fell silent, once the most outspoken company was now the most secret, shrouded in mystery that took a long time before anyone understood why. Nintendo like Retro Studio’s but for a new games company they probably liked them too much, like RARE Nintendo let Retro get up to their own thing, Nintendo trusted RARE with the Donkey Kong license with barley any interference from Nintendo’s in house coders EAD. So with weeks heading towards 2001’s E3 games show, Nintendo’s lead designer Shiguru Miyamoto visited Austin Texas to have a long overdue check up on their new little baby. Miyamoto was shocked at what he saw, the First Person Shooter prospective was to be expected, but what Miyamoto saw was an incredibly poor western shooter, something Metroid isn’t. Raven Blade the dark RPG had a lot of people yelling and screaming over it because the FMV’s looked good but what Miyamoto found was a really poor game, Car Combat and NFL Retro Football were also incredibly poor. With a lot of money going into this company and a lot of hopes riding on Metroid Prime, Nintendo needed to interfere.
They didn’t show Metroid Prime as a playable game, instead showed a nice FMV demo as Nintendo coped with the shock. Nintendo needed to do something, and all of a sudden nothing was quite anymore, Shiguru Miyamoto openly admitted that Metroid “isn’t as good as he hoped” which was why he never showed it and then the bad news began to fly. Raven Blade, The unnamed game, Car Combat and NFL Retro Football were all canned never to see the light of day, along with that 26 people lost their jobs, Retro Studios were now a 40 strong development company and the public honestly believed Nintendo made a mistake. Problem with sports second party developer Left Field opened up a breathing space for the company, enter Nintendo’s EAD. Shiguru Miyamoto was hopping two and fro like nobody’s business, the game was now re-started from scratch, but with EAD and programmers etc… from those who were working on the other 5 games it still should be finished by the end of 2002. Despite an apparent aversion of disaster bad things still occurred, the lead designer of Metroid left, fed up with Nintendo interference and so in his place, although temporarily, was the worlds most famous and most busy games designer Shiguru Miyamoto. Trying to keep the game away from a “western shooter” like Doom, this disappointed id Software’s ex member Dave "Zoid" Kirsch famous for work on the Quake series. But he wasn’t too disappointed, Shiguru Miyamoto insisted that this would be a new experience for him and headed into the game with renewed hope.
And then it all began to straighten out, Metroid Prime was going strong, the interference from 40% owner Nintendo was doing well. But the guy who was put to shame by it all was the owner Jeff Spangenberg, ex member of Acclaim’s Iguana studios (the UK one). Not only was his company publicly humiliated by Nintendo, but he was forced to let some of his closest friends go and being involved in the Turok series wasn’t pleased with Nintendo’s idea of a First Person Adventure. He stayed with the company for a while before realizing he had lost control, he decided to pursue different business opportunities and sold the remaining 60% of the company to Nintendo. This makes Retro Studio’s basically an American Nintendo team working on a Nintendo brand game.
It is a sad story really, how an exciting new company filled with veterans of the gaming industry, preparing to make many huge and exciting games ended up a small division of Nintendo with just one game in development. In the process games with so much opportunity was lost, nearly the entire Raven Blade team lost their jobs as well. For those bothered about what happened to those 26 people, well they all got a new job, some in existing development houses whilst most formed with ex ion storm members to form a new company called Super Happy Fun Fun. Hopefully next time someone decides to follow in the footsteps of RARE, they’ll learn from Retro Studio’s mistake.
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
Set up at 1835A Kramer Lane in Austin Texas, Retro studios consisted of the best from various different companies, Capcom, Acclaim and even RARE. Since retired Howard Linton once said:
“We have other companies that we are making strategic investments in, but we’re very careful to limit those investments to really first class developers Retro Studios comes to mind, companies like that.”
Nintendo had a high profile of the new western company; they funded their move to a larger 40,000 square foot office and even gave them the rights to make a high profile Nintendo title, Metroid. Everything this company did was high profile, even when they chose Vicon 8 as their optical motion capture system Internet sites and magazines everywhere thought the need to report it. On September 17th 1999 it was revealed that on the launch day of the Gamecube (then called Dolphin) that Retro Studios would have 5 launch games ready! These games included Raven Blade an RPG with great prospects, Metroid Prime although this was still a secret, Car Combat (Thunder Rally) and NFL Retro Football. It was all looking rosy for this new next generation games company with support from the major giant that is Nintendo.
And then everything fell silent, once the most outspoken company was now the most secret, shrouded in mystery that took a long time before anyone understood why. Nintendo like Retro Studio’s but for a new games company they probably liked them too much, like RARE Nintendo let Retro get up to their own thing, Nintendo trusted RARE with the Donkey Kong license with barley any interference from Nintendo’s in house coders EAD. So with weeks heading towards 2001’s E3 games show, Nintendo’s lead designer Shiguru Miyamoto visited Austin Texas to have a long overdue check up on their new little baby. Miyamoto was shocked at what he saw, the First Person Shooter prospective was to be expected, but what Miyamoto saw was an incredibly poor western shooter, something Metroid isn’t. Raven Blade the dark RPG had a lot of people yelling and screaming over it because the FMV’s looked good but what Miyamoto found was a really poor game, Car Combat and NFL Retro Football were also incredibly poor. With a lot of money going into this company and a lot of hopes riding on Metroid Prime, Nintendo needed to interfere.
They didn’t show Metroid Prime as a playable game, instead showed a nice FMV demo as Nintendo coped with the shock. Nintendo needed to do something, and all of a sudden nothing was quite anymore, Shiguru Miyamoto openly admitted that Metroid “isn’t as good as he hoped” which was why he never showed it and then the bad news began to fly. Raven Blade, The unnamed game, Car Combat and NFL Retro Football were all canned never to see the light of day, along with that 26 people lost their jobs, Retro Studios were now a 40 strong development company and the public honestly believed Nintendo made a mistake. Problem with sports second party developer Left Field opened up a breathing space for the company, enter Nintendo’s EAD. Shiguru Miyamoto was hopping two and fro like nobody’s business, the game was now re-started from scratch, but with EAD and programmers etc… from those who were working on the other 5 games it still should be finished by the end of 2002. Despite an apparent aversion of disaster bad things still occurred, the lead designer of Metroid left, fed up with Nintendo interference and so in his place, although temporarily, was the worlds most famous and most busy games designer Shiguru Miyamoto. Trying to keep the game away from a “western shooter” like Doom, this disappointed id Software’s ex member Dave "Zoid" Kirsch famous for work on the Quake series. But he wasn’t too disappointed, Shiguru Miyamoto insisted that this would be a new experience for him and headed into the game with renewed hope.
And then it all began to straighten out, Metroid Prime was going strong, the interference from 40% owner Nintendo was doing well. But the guy who was put to shame by it all was the owner Jeff Spangenberg, ex member of Acclaim’s Iguana studios (the UK one). Not only was his company publicly humiliated by Nintendo, but he was forced to let some of his closest friends go and being involved in the Turok series wasn’t pleased with Nintendo’s idea of a First Person Adventure. He stayed with the company for a while before realizing he had lost control, he decided to pursue different business opportunities and sold the remaining 60% of the company to Nintendo. This makes Retro Studio’s basically an American Nintendo team working on a Nintendo brand game.
It is a sad story really, how an exciting new company filled with veterans of the gaming industry, preparing to make many huge and exciting games ended up a small division of Nintendo with just one game in development. In the process games with so much opportunity was lost, nearly the entire Raven Blade team lost their jobs as well. For those bothered about what happened to those 26 people, well they all got a new job, some in existing development houses whilst most formed with ex ion storm members to form a new company called Super Happy Fun Fun. Hopefully next time someone decides to follow in the footsteps of RARE, they’ll learn from Retro Studio’s mistake.
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
Dringo wrote:
> ===SONICRAV---wrote:
> Dringo, the project manager was changed, coding started from
> scratch,
> and now Ninty designers check up on the game's progress biweekly...
>
> Yeah and how does that mean they didnt start from scratch? Admitidly
> the main idea and the storyline remained but basically they started
> the game again.
"but basically they started the game again."
"how does that mean they didnt start from scratch?"
> ===SONICRAV---wrote:
> Dringo, the project manager was changed, coding started from
> scratch,
> and now Ninty designers check up on the game's progress biweekly...
>
> Yeah and how does that mean they didnt start from scratch? Admitidly
> the main idea and the storyline remained but basically they started
> the game again.
"but basically they started the game again."
"how does that mean they didnt start from scratch?"
===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> Dringo, the project manager was changed, coding started from scratch,
> and now Ninty designers check up on the game's progress biweekly...
Yeah and how does that mean they didnt start from scratch? Admitidly the main idea and the storyline remained but basically they started the game again.
> Dringo, the project manager was changed, coding started from scratch,
> and now Ninty designers check up on the game's progress biweekly...
Yeah and how does that mean they didnt start from scratch? Admitidly the main idea and the storyline remained but basically they started the game again.
Dringo, the project manager was changed, coding started from scratch, and now Ninty designers check up on the game's progress biweekly...
===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> I'm sure the game will be great- Ninty have enev assigned their own
> game directors to the project now... and when was the last bad Ninty
> game?
> However, it did come as a big shock that Miyamoto had to stand up and
> list the faults with the game at a press conference... it certainly
> worried me.
They have restarted it all, and Dr. Mario's a good game just the N64 version wasn't much different to the SNES one.
> I'm sure the game will be great- Ninty have enev assigned their own
> game directors to the project now... and when was the last bad Ninty
> game?
> However, it did come as a big shock that Miyamoto had to stand up and
> list the faults with the game at a press conference... it certainly
> worried me.
They have restarted it all, and Dr. Mario's a good game just the N64 version wasn't much different to the SNES one.
===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> I'm sure the game will be great- Ninty have enev assigned their own
> game directors to the project now... and when was the last bad Ninty
> game?
Dr. Mario?
> I'm sure the game will be great- Ninty have enev assigned their own
> game directors to the project now... and when was the last bad Ninty
> game?
Dr. Mario?
I'm sure the game will be great- Ninty have enev assigned their own game directors to the project now... and when was the last bad Ninty game?
However, it did come as a big shock that Miyamoto had to stand up and list the faults with the game at a press conference... it certainly worried me.
However, it did come as a big shock that Miyamoto had to stand up and list the faults with the game at a press conference... it certainly worried me.
MEtroid has been sorted now REtro is owned by Nintendo.
I actually think Metroid will be good - not because I have a (some might say misplaced) belief in Retro Studios, but because I refuse to believe Nintendo will release it if it doesn't meet their standards, as a poor game will ruin the franchise.
Good topic Dringo!
The Metroid fiasco is a worrying one for Nintendo. As one of the first big Ninty games announced to be developed out-of-house, it came as a massive shock when Shigsy publically admitted that, after months of development, there was no sound, not plot and little interactive scenes...
Thankfully all of Ninty's other licenced games have gone to more established development teams like UGA, Rare and Namco.
Sonic
The Metroid fiasco is a worrying one for Nintendo. As one of the first big Ninty games announced to be developed out-of-house, it came as a massive shock when Shigsy publically admitted that, after months of development, there was no sound, not plot and little interactive scenes...
Thankfully all of Ninty's other licenced games have gone to more established development teams like UGA, Rare and Namco.
Sonic
“America’s version of RARE” they called them, “the new king to Nintendo’s second part throne” they claimed. But so I ask how did Retro Studios turn out to be one of the greatest disasters in recent video game history.
Set up at 1835A Kramer Lane in Austin Texas, Retro studios consisted of the best from various different companies, Capcom, Acclaim and even RARE. Since retired Howard Linton once said:
“We have other companies that we are making strategic investments in, but we’re very careful to limit those investments to really first class developers Retro Studios comes to mind, companies like that.”
Nintendo had a high profile of the new western company; they funded their move to a larger 40,000 square foot office and even gave them the rights to make a high profile Nintendo title, Metroid. Everything this company did was high profile, even when they chose Vicon 8 as their optical motion capture system Internet sites and magazines everywhere thought the need to report it. On September 17th 1999 it was revealed that on the launch day of the Gamecube (then called Dolphin) that Retro Studios would have 5 launch games ready! These games included Raven Blade an RPG with great prospects, Metroid Prime although this was still a secret, Car Combat (Thunder Rally) and NFL Retro Football. It was all looking rosy for this new next generation games company with support from the major giant that is Nintendo.
And then everything fell silent, once the most outspoken company was now the most secret, shrouded in mystery that took a long time before anyone understood why. Nintendo like Retro Studio’s but for a new games company they probably liked them too much, like RARE Nintendo let Retro get up to their own thing, Nintendo trusted RARE with the Donkey Kong license with barley any interference from Nintendo’s in house coders EAD. So with weeks heading towards 2001’s E3 games show, Nintendo’s lead designer Shiguru Miyamoto visited Austin Texas to have a long overdue check up on their new little baby. Miyamoto was shocked at what he saw, the First Person Shooter prospective was to be expected, but what Miyamoto saw was an incredibly poor western shooter, something Metroid isn’t. Raven Blade the dark RPG had a lot of people yelling and screaming over it because the FMV’s looked good but what Miyamoto found was a really poor game, Car Combat and NFL Retro Football were also incredibly poor. With a lot of money going into this company and a lot of hopes riding on Metroid Prime, Nintendo needed to interfere.
They didn’t show Metroid Prime as a playable game, instead showed a nice FMV demo as Nintendo coped with the shock. Nintendo needed to do something, and all of a sudden nothing was quite anymore, Shiguru Miyamoto openly admitted that Metroid “isn’t as good as he hoped” which was why he never showed it and then the bad news began to fly. Raven Blade, The unnamed game, Car Combat and NFL Retro Football were all canned never to see the light of day, along with that 26 people lost their jobs, Retro Studios were now a 40 strong development company and the public honestly believed Nintendo made a mistake. Problem with sports second party developer Left Field opened up a breathing space for the company, enter Nintendo’s EAD. Shiguru Miyamoto was hopping two and fro like nobody’s business, the game was now re-started from scratch, but with EAD and programmers etc… from those who were working on the other 5 games it still should be finished by the end of 2002. Despite an apparent aversion of disaster bad things still occurred, the lead designer of Metroid left, fed up with Nintendo interference and so in his place, although temporarily, was the worlds most famous and most busy games designer Shiguru Miyamoto. Trying to keep the game away from a “western shooter” like Doom, this disappointed id Software’s ex member Dave "Zoid" Kirsch famous for work on the Quake series. But he wasn’t too disappointed, Shiguru Miyamoto insisted that this would be a new experience for him and headed into the game with renewed hope.
And then it all began to straighten out, Metroid Prime was going strong, the interference from 40% owner Nintendo was doing well. But the guy who was put to shame by it all was the owner Jeff Spangenberg, ex member of Acclaim’s Iguana studios (the UK one). Not only was his company publicly humiliated by Nintendo, but he was forced to let some of his closest friends go and being involved in the Turok series wasn’t pleased with Nintendo’s idea of a First Person Adventure. He stayed with the company for a while before realizing he had lost control, he decided to pursue different business opportunities and sold the remaining 60% of the company to Nintendo. This makes Retro Studio’s basically an American Nintendo team working on a Nintendo brand game.
It is a sad story really, how an exciting new company filled with veterans of the gaming industry, preparing to make many huge and exciting games ended up a small division of Nintendo with just one game in development. In the process games with so much opportunity was lost, nearly the entire Raven Blade team lost their jobs as well. For those bothered about what happened to those 26 people, well they all got a new job, some in existing development houses whilst most formed with ex ion storm members to form a new company called Super Happy Fun Fun. Hopefully next time someone decides to follow in the footsteps of RARE, they’ll learn from Retro Studio’s mistake.
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
Set up at 1835A Kramer Lane in Austin Texas, Retro studios consisted of the best from various different companies, Capcom, Acclaim and even RARE. Since retired Howard Linton once said:
“We have other companies that we are making strategic investments in, but we’re very careful to limit those investments to really first class developers Retro Studios comes to mind, companies like that.”
Nintendo had a high profile of the new western company; they funded their move to a larger 40,000 square foot office and even gave them the rights to make a high profile Nintendo title, Metroid. Everything this company did was high profile, even when they chose Vicon 8 as their optical motion capture system Internet sites and magazines everywhere thought the need to report it. On September 17th 1999 it was revealed that on the launch day of the Gamecube (then called Dolphin) that Retro Studios would have 5 launch games ready! These games included Raven Blade an RPG with great prospects, Metroid Prime although this was still a secret, Car Combat (Thunder Rally) and NFL Retro Football. It was all looking rosy for this new next generation games company with support from the major giant that is Nintendo.
And then everything fell silent, once the most outspoken company was now the most secret, shrouded in mystery that took a long time before anyone understood why. Nintendo like Retro Studio’s but for a new games company they probably liked them too much, like RARE Nintendo let Retro get up to their own thing, Nintendo trusted RARE with the Donkey Kong license with barley any interference from Nintendo’s in house coders EAD. So with weeks heading towards 2001’s E3 games show, Nintendo’s lead designer Shiguru Miyamoto visited Austin Texas to have a long overdue check up on their new little baby. Miyamoto was shocked at what he saw, the First Person Shooter prospective was to be expected, but what Miyamoto saw was an incredibly poor western shooter, something Metroid isn’t. Raven Blade the dark RPG had a lot of people yelling and screaming over it because the FMV’s looked good but what Miyamoto found was a really poor game, Car Combat and NFL Retro Football were also incredibly poor. With a lot of money going into this company and a lot of hopes riding on Metroid Prime, Nintendo needed to interfere.
They didn’t show Metroid Prime as a playable game, instead showed a nice FMV demo as Nintendo coped with the shock. Nintendo needed to do something, and all of a sudden nothing was quite anymore, Shiguru Miyamoto openly admitted that Metroid “isn’t as good as he hoped” which was why he never showed it and then the bad news began to fly. Raven Blade, The unnamed game, Car Combat and NFL Retro Football were all canned never to see the light of day, along with that 26 people lost their jobs, Retro Studios were now a 40 strong development company and the public honestly believed Nintendo made a mistake. Problem with sports second party developer Left Field opened up a breathing space for the company, enter Nintendo’s EAD. Shiguru Miyamoto was hopping two and fro like nobody’s business, the game was now re-started from scratch, but with EAD and programmers etc… from those who were working on the other 5 games it still should be finished by the end of 2002. Despite an apparent aversion of disaster bad things still occurred, the lead designer of Metroid left, fed up with Nintendo interference and so in his place, although temporarily, was the worlds most famous and most busy games designer Shiguru Miyamoto. Trying to keep the game away from a “western shooter” like Doom, this disappointed id Software’s ex member Dave "Zoid" Kirsch famous for work on the Quake series. But he wasn’t too disappointed, Shiguru Miyamoto insisted that this would be a new experience for him and headed into the game with renewed hope.
And then it all began to straighten out, Metroid Prime was going strong, the interference from 40% owner Nintendo was doing well. But the guy who was put to shame by it all was the owner Jeff Spangenberg, ex member of Acclaim’s Iguana studios (the UK one). Not only was his company publicly humiliated by Nintendo, but he was forced to let some of his closest friends go and being involved in the Turok series wasn’t pleased with Nintendo’s idea of a First Person Adventure. He stayed with the company for a while before realizing he had lost control, he decided to pursue different business opportunities and sold the remaining 60% of the company to Nintendo. This makes Retro Studio’s basically an American Nintendo team working on a Nintendo brand game.
It is a sad story really, how an exciting new company filled with veterans of the gaming industry, preparing to make many huge and exciting games ended up a small division of Nintendo with just one game in development. In the process games with so much opportunity was lost, nearly the entire Raven Blade team lost their jobs as well. For those bothered about what happened to those 26 people, well they all got a new job, some in existing development houses whilst most formed with ex ion storm members to form a new company called Super Happy Fun Fun. Hopefully next time someone decides to follow in the footsteps of RARE, they’ll learn from Retro Studio’s mistake.
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.