Retro Studios has been working exclusively with Nintendo for decades and is currently putting the finishing touches on Metroid Prime 4 after what appears to have been a difficult development process.
But according to a former Retro employee, the relationship between Retro and Nintendo may not be entirely healthy. If nothing else, it hasn’t always been so. Former World Artist Nate Purkypile told the Kiwi Talkz podcast that the relationship between Retro and Nintendo was slightly ‘unhealthy’ during the development of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
“I have never liked working with publishers or anything, but this was a whole other level of micromanagement. Like, no way! In my opinion, if you’re not directly working on the game, go away. You can give feedback and guidance, but I don’t think you should be telling the devs what to do. You don’t have all the proper context or framing to actually be giving these critiques and I think it’s completely not how things should be made. Not to say that Metroid didn’t turn out great, but it didn’t turn out great because some shoulder pad was shifted slightly. I think that’s kind of an unhealthy relationship.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwvvbH2l-lI/
Retro has continued to work with Nintendo since Corruption was released in 2007 and has delivered successes. What do you think of Purkypile’s words?