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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.
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?
Three Retro Studios staffers escape, save Etecoons on the way out
Three high-level members of Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios have left the company. Design director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller, and technology engineer Jack Mathews' last day at the Austin-based, Nintendo-owned developer was Friday. Shacknews speculates that the three are going to start a new company, which is certainly more likely than the three of them simultaneously tiring of game development.Retro's last released project was, of course, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, after which Pacini said the company would be working on non-Metroid projects. Apparently, even that wasn't enough change for these three -- or they just feared for the condition of their tea tables.(Yes, the title is a Super Metroid reference and not a Metroid Prime reference. Close enough.)
The road to corruption: Retro Studios and the making of Metroid Prime
As gamers, our focus is often on playing games and not the subtleties that go on behind the scenes. If we only knew about all those details, though, we might be shocked to find out how something like the Metroid Prime series almost never came to be.Retro Studios president and CEO Michael Kelbaugh recently talked about the Prime arc at the 2007 Montreal Games Summit. In the conference, he explained the pressures of having his (at that time) rookie studio pick up such an important franchise, and how Miyamoto was influential in taking the series from third person to first person.
