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Armature Studio hiring for 'unannounced project' with 'unannounced publisher'
The last time we heard from Armature Studio, the developer founded by ex-Retro Studios executives, it had signed a multi-game agreement with EA. That was in fall 2008, and there hasn't been a peep from Armature since then -- until now. The Austin-based developer is up to something! And hiring people to do that thing that it's up to! A newsletter sent out by the former Metroid Prime dev announced that "We are staffing up for the initial stages of an exciting unannounced project with an excited unannounced publisher!" That "unannounced publisher" bit puts the status of Armature's "long-term, exclusive" deal with EA into question. Perhaps the Armature deal was affected by the EA Blueprint closure -- in any case, this announcement is potentially great news for the millions who loved Metroid Prime and want to see more from the people who created it. Oh, and it's also potentially great news for engineers, designers, animators, or visual effects artists looking for a job in Austin.
AGDC: We talk to Jack Mathews of Armature Studio
Earlier this week, EA announced that the three developers (Jack Matthews, Mark Pacini, and Todd Keller) who jumped ship from the Nintendo-owned Retro Studios back in April would be forming their own development house, Armature Studio. They were courted by several big companies (read: as big as EA, and/or bigger) and finally signed a long-term publishing deal with EA to develop games for all consoles. Pacini said, "What really gets me going is that now, no platform is off limit. That is just something we didn't have the ability to do before." Both Retro and Armature are located in Austin, TX, so the timing of the press release was meant to be a part of the Austin GDC. Even though this same team worked on the Metroid Prime series, it's itching for more knuckle-blasting, thumbstick-twiddling, button-mashing fare. After the jump you can read our interview with Jack Mathews and find out what sort of platforms the new studio will be developing for. One thing we did learn: they're not making any MMOs.
Former Metroid Prime devs found Armature Studio, partner with EA
If you'll recall, three of Retro Studios' key developers – Mark Pacini, Todd Keller, and Jack Matthews – left the Nintendo-owned studio, famous for the Metroid Prime series, last April. Now the trio has announced the formation of an entirely new entity: Armature Studio. Armature isn't your run-of-the-mill developer though – a "core creative team" will be tasked with creating new intellectual properties and then partner with an external development team to implement the design. It's an outsourcing model (think Wideload) that allows smaller creative teams the ability to develop AAA titles. But while the model is great, it's not very valuable without a publishing partner to help get those games out there. Cue: "a long term, exclusive publishing deal with EA" – presumably the secretive EA Blueprint, since that imprint's Louis Castle is serving as executive producer for the Armature titles. For the guys at Armature, they're just excited to "rethink how games are developed for this generation of consoles." Yup, "consoles" – no longer limited to Nintendo hardware, Pacini says, "What really gets me going is that now, no platform is off limits." Xbox 360? PS3? Gizmondo?
