Retro Studios facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Retro Studios, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	September 21, 1998; 26 years ago (1998-09-21)
Founder	Jeff Spangenberg
Headquarters	Austin, Texas , U.S.
Key people	Michael Kelbaugh (president and CEO)
Products	Metroid Prime series Donkey Kong Country series
Parent	Nintendo (2002–present)

Retro Studios, Inc. is an American company that makes video games. It is a part of Nintendo and is located in Austin, Texas. Retro Studios is famous for creating games in the Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country series. They have also helped with other Nintendo games, like Mario Kart 7.

Retro Studios was started on September 21, 1998. It was a partnership between Nintendo and Jeff Spangenberg, who had founded another game company called Iguana Entertainment. Their goal was to make games for the upcoming GameCube console that would appeal to older players. The company began working on four different games. However, they later decided to focus all their efforts on Metroid Prime. This was the first Metroid game made outside of Japan. Because Metroid Prime was so successful, Retro Studios went on to make three more Metroid Prime games. They also helped bring back the Donkey Kong series with Donkey Kong Country Returns.

The Story of Retro Studios

Starting Up: 1998-2002 and Metroid Prime

Retro Studios began on September 21, 1998. It was a team-up between Nintendo and a well-known game creator, Jeff Spangenberg. Spangenberg started the company from his home on October 1, using money from his past projects. Nintendo saw a chance for this new studio to make games for the upcoming GameCube. They wanted games that would interest older players, similar to the popular Turok series on the Nintendo 64.

Retro Studios started with just four main people in late 1998. By early 1999, they opened an office in Austin, Texas, with 25 employees. Many of these employees had worked for Iguana Entertainment before. Even without special GameCube tools, the studio immediately started working on four games for the GameCube. These games included an adventure game called MetaForce, a car combat game known as Car Combat or Thunder Rally, an American football game called NFL Retro Football, and a role-playing game called Raven Blade. The studio quickly grew to 120 employees and later peaked at over 200 people.

The early days at Retro Studios were a bit messy. Games were falling behind schedule, and Nintendo wasn't happy with how they looked. In 2000, famous game designer Shigeru Miyamoto from Nintendo visited the studio. He wasn't impressed with most of the games. However, he liked the technology they used for MetaForce. This led Miyamoto to suggest that Retro could use that technology to make a new game in the Metroid series. Soon after, Nintendo gave Retro the chance to create Metroid Prime. Retro then moved all their efforts from MetaForce to this new Metroid game.

Retro Studios eventually stopped working on their other games to focus only on Metroid Prime. In February 2001, they canceled NFL Retro Football and Thunder Rally, and about 20 employees left. Even though Retro showed Raven Blade at the E3 in 2001, the game had many technical problems. In July 2001, Retro canceled Raven Blade too. Only nine team members stayed to work on Metroid Prime. A notable artist named Android Jones was the main concept artist for Metroid Prime.

On May 2, 2002, Nintendo bought more of Retro Studios' stock from Spangenberg. This made Retro Studios a full part of Nintendo. Steve Barcia became the new president of the company.

During the last nine months of making Metroid Prime, the team at Retro worked very long hours, sometimes 80 to 100 hours a week. Even with these tough times and some fans being unsure at first, the game was released on November 17, 2002, in North America. It received amazing reviews and sold over two million copies worldwide.

The Metroid Prime Trilogy: 2003-2009

After Metroid Prime was a big hit, Nintendo asked Retro Studios to make a sequel. The developers decided to create new features for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes instead of just reusing old ones. They added new sounds, weapon effects, and art styles. A multiplayer mode was also included. In April 2003, Steve Barcia left the company. Michael Kelbaugh, who had worked with Nintendo for over 15 years, became the new president. He still holds this job today. Retro wanted to add extra things, like a hidden version of Super Metroid. However, they didn't have enough time. The game's producer, Kensuke Tanabe, later said that the game was only about 30% finished three months before Nintendo's strict deadline for a 2004 holiday release. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes got very good reviews, but some players found it too difficult. Sales for Echoes were lower than the first Prime game, selling about 800,000 copies.

Retro Studios then started working on the next game in the Metroid Prime series, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Retro wanted to make the game's environments larger than those in Echoes. They also wanted to use the WiiConnect24 feature to offer extra content that players could get from the internet. Retro announced that Corruption would be the last game in the Prime series. They said its story would be about "closure, told against the backdrop of an epic struggle." After the Wii Remote was shown, Nintendo demonstrated how Metroid Prime 3 would use the controller's special abilities. They did this with a version of Echoes changed for the Wii at the Tokyo Game Show in 2005. Corruption was first planned to be a launch game for the Wii in November 2006. However, it faced many delays. It was finally released in August 2007, getting mostly positive reviews. It sold over 1.6 million copies worldwide.

While Retro was busy with the Prime sequels, they couldn't work on the Nintendo DS game Metroid Prime Hunters. Another company, Nintendo Software Technology (NST), made that game. NST worked closely with Retro to design the game's art and characters. This made sure they fit well into the overall Metroid series.

New Adventures: Donkey Kong Country and Metroid Prime 4

In April 2008, three important developers left Retro: Mark Pacini, Todd Keller, and Jack Mathews. They went on to start their own company, Armature Studio. Around the same time, Shigeru Miyamoto asked producer Kensuke Tanabe to suggest a studio that could make a new Donkey Kong game. Tanabe recommended Retro. Michael Kelbaugh, Retro's president, had worked on the Donkey Kong Country series before. He was interested in continuing the game series. Retro accepted the job and began making Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Like New Super Mario Bros., this game was made to bring back good memories for players. It used a similar art style and sounds. At the same time, it offered new ways to play. Returns used full 3D graphics. It had three times more textures and polygons than Corruption. Over six months, two-thirds of the game's tools and engine had to be rewritten by the programmers. Making the game sped up in early 2010. The project was "beginning to come together as a game" around the time of E3 2010. This is when it was officially announced. Even though the game was set for release that autumn, the team still had 70 levels to create or improve.

Retro Studios' former headquarters in Austin, Texas. The company moved to a new location in 2011.

At E3 2011, Nintendo announced that Retro Studios would help make Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS. At first, Retro was only going to help with one Donkey Kong-themed level. But they ended up designing sixteen tracks. This happened because the Nintendo EAD team started working on other projects. The game needed to be finished by December 2011.

In 2012, it was shared that Retro Studios had received a Wii U development kit. They were reportedly working on a Wii U game. Miyamoto said he would like to work with Retro Studios on a The Legend of Zelda game. However, he also said that the game Retro was working on at the time was not a Zelda game. At E3 2012, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé told IGN that Retro was "hard at work" on an unannounced Wii U project.

On February 28, 2014, Kensuke Tanabe announced that Retro Studios was working on a new game. CEO Michael Kelbaugh said it had been in development for a few months since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was finished. However, in August 2015, during an interview about Metroid Prime: Federation Force, Tanabe said he wasn't sure what Retro Studios was working on. This made it seem like he was no longer involved with their secret project.

Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 at E3 2017 by only showing its logo. Soon after, Bill Trinen from Nintendo of America confirmed that Retro Studios would not be making Prime 4. Instead, Kensuke Tanabe, the producer of the earlier games, would produce it. In 2018, Eurogamer reported that Prime 4 was being made by Bandai Namco Studios in Singapore. However, on January 25, 2019, Nintendo EPD general manager Shinya Takahashi announced that Metroid Prime 4 was delayed. He also said that development had restarted with Retro Studios. Takahashi explained that the work from the previous studio did not meet Nintendo's high standards. Nintendo's shares dropped by 2.8 percent the week after this announcement.

Games Made by Retro Studios

Games That Were Canceled

See also

In Spanish: Retro Studios para niños