Trouble brewing at Retro Studios. Rocky development for Wii U project.

RUMOR

People have asked me what is going on with Retro Studios.  As far as game projects, I have no idea.  But I have heard one thing about Retro Studios.  Nintendo has been in panic mode over the studio for the last year, and it’s had a negative effect on Retro Studio’s current Wii U project.  Retro’s Wii U project is far along in development, but it had a rocky development road throughout the process which forced Nintendo to fly a few employees from NST out to Austin, Texas to make sure Retro’s project stays on track and reaches completion.  Major gaps in positions and staff has caused delays and frustrations throughout the development process.  If Metroid Prime 1 taught us anything, Nintendo will stick with Retro through thick and thin to finish it a project they strongly believe in.

Nintendo is currently rebuilding and restructuring Retro Studios after losing a majority of the core talent responsible for creating the Metroid Prime trilogy, as well as 2 out of the 3 senior designers of Donkey Kong Country Returns.  But if most of Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Country Returns staff is still on board with Retro, what’s Nintendo worried about?

Well, Nintendo is preparing themselves for more senior talent to leave Retro Studios after Retro’s Wii U game is completed.  Older Retro Studios talent is preparing to jump ship, and Nintendo is hoping that recruiting new blood will reinvigorate the studio.  Retro Studios is going through a transitional period, and Nintendo is going into damage control to help them get through it.  In other words,  today’s Retro Studios is not the same company it was during the “Prime” days.  For years, Nintendo taught Retro how to think and develop games like Nintendo.  But with Retro’s core group of senior members leaving, and brand new employees entering, this changes the entire culture and philosophy inside of the company.  This means Retro is starting to forget how to “think and develop like Nintendo” which is making things tougher on Nintendo overall.

Speaking with an id software employee, their company has been receiving resumes and applications from current and former Retro Studios employees within the last year.  “Yeah, we receive resumes from Retro employees.  From what I understand, Retro Studios is bleeding away talent.”  On top of this, I’ve heard rumblings about some Retro Studios employees considering a jump over to Bioware Austin after their obligations to the Wii U project are complete.

This Wii U project will be created by a “New Retro”…a Retro that is a shadow of its older self, but it will still come out with a quality product thanks to supervision by Nintendo. It will be created without the majority of the top designers and top engineers responsible for the Metroid Prime trilogy.  It will be created without two of the three key designers (as well as one senior engineer) behind the genius level design of Donkey Kong Country Returns.    There are still Retro Studios members with the company, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot.  Many old Rareware employees (including tons of Banjo-Kazooie staff) still currently work at Rare, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t changed as a company.

As you know, in 2008,  these three key staff members from the Metroid Prime trilogy left Retro Studios to form their own studio, Armature Studios:

Mark Pacini – Design director (Entire Metroid Prime trilogy).
Todd Keller – Art director (Entire Metroid Prime trilogy).
Jack Mathews – Principle technology engineer (Entire Metroid Prime trilogy)

From what I’ve been told, after the Metroid Prime trilogy, Nintendo saw the loss of senior developers as an act of “protesting” against Nintendo. As soon as Prime was finished, Nintendo seeked out another developer to work on Metroid to send a message to those employees who walked out on Retro that  “no designer or engineer is bigger than Metroid”.  Many employees who stayed with Retro thought it would be disrespectful to work on a Metroid Prime 4 one year after so many “Prime” designers/engineers/artists who made the trilogy successful either left the company or were laid off. 

Editor’s note:  Retro didn’t act out in protest. Nintendo just viewed mass amounts of talent leaving as an act of protest.  Retro had no reason to protest.  I wanted to clear this up.

Other employees that left after or during the Metroid Prime trilogy include:

• • Karl Deckard – Senior Designer of Metroid Prime 1, 2, and 3.  (Left Retro to work at Sucker Punch)
    
  • Jason Behr – Designer of Metroid Prime.  Senior designer on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes  (Now works with 343 on Halo 4.)
    
  • Andy O’ Neil -  Technical Lead Engineer and principal engineer on Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes .  (He left Retro to become president of Bluepoint Games)
  • Marco Thrush – Senior Software Engineer on Metroid Prime 1, 2, and 3.  (Left Retro to work at Bluepoint Games.)
  • Steve McCrea – Engineering and Senior Engineering on Metroid Prime 1, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption   (He is now the Senior AI Engineer at Armature Studio)
  • David “Zoid” Kirsh – Senior engineer on Metroid Prime 1, 2, and 3.  Zoid is responsible for the data streaming that takes place when you travel from one section of the world to the next.   Also responsible for the Queen Parasite boss encased in a giant cylindrical shield.   David “Zoid” Kirsh worked on Quake games with ID before joining Retro Studios.   (Zoid Kirsh left Retro Studios after the Metroid Prime trilogy and he now works for Valve on network interaction in multiplayer games. He also works on in-game action such as rule systems and scripting solutions for player interactivity.)
  • Paul Tozour – Senior engineer for Retro Studios from July 2003 to June 2008.  According to his resume, he worked on extensive gameplay, AI, and tools development for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and two other projects.  One of the projects was most likely Donkey Kong Country Returns.
    His responsibilities included extensive AI development on dozens of creature AI systems and boss encounters.  Also designed and built an extensive real-time artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic and debugging tool set, a collision abstraction system, an attachment management system, and refactored path finding systems for flying and jumping creatures.  Rewrote the internal in-game diagnostic menu system to be hierarchical and use the Wii remote.  He also mentored several engineers in AI development.
  • Alejandro Roura – Environment artist and full-time Animator for Metroid Prime 1, 2, and 3.  Worked as an animator and environment artist for Retro Studios from 2000 to 2007.  (Now works as animator at Crystal Dynamics. Probably working on “Tomb Raider”.)
  • Frank Lafaente -Engineering Director on all three Metroid Prime games.  (Currently, Frank is a Director of Gameplay programming at Insomniac Games.)
  • Kai Martin -  Software engineer on all three Metroid Prime games.  (Currently working as a V.P. – Development at Thomas TradeWeb)
  • Chip Sbrogna – One of 4 level designers on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.  Now works at Sixense Studios creating DLC for Valve’s Portal 2.
  • Ben Sprout – Artist on Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid Prime 3.  (Currently works at Guerilla Games.  His last two games were Killzone 2 and Killzone 3.)
  • Aaron de Orive – Lead writer/Story consultant for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
  • Cliff Young – World Artist for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
  • Bobby Pavlock – A level designer on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption who left Retro to work at Gearbox and then became Sr. Designer at Armature Studio.
  • Todd Simmons – Audio contractor for Metroid Prime 2 and 3.
  • Ilya Nazaou  – Artist for Metroid Prime 3 who now works for Bethesda.  See his amazing artwork here: http://ilyanazarov.com/
  • Tom Papadatos – Senior Artist on Metroid Prime 1  (Now Lead Character Artist at Disney Interactive Studios)
  • James H. Dargie – Senior Artist and designer on Metroid Prime 1 (He is now currently Studio Art Director at Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  • Ian Olsen – Character artist for Metroid Prime 3
  • Sonny Santa Maria – Contract Animation for Metroid Prime 3 (Left Retro to work at companies like Sony and Sega).
  • Michael Cheng – Level Designer for Metroid Prime 2 from Aug 2003 - May 2005 (Left Retro and became lead level designer at Sony and LucasArts.  Then became lead game designer at Electronic arts.)
  • Amanda Rubright -  Game and Level designer on Metroid Prime 1 between 2001 through 2003.  (After MP1, she left to work for companies like Ubisoft and Junction Point.)
  • Tony Giovannini – Was a level designer for Metroid Prime 1.
  • Nate Purkeypile – World Artist and Cinematics Scripter on Metroid Prime 3.  (Currently a Senior World Artist at Bethesda Softworks)

  

• With major staff members gone, it was up to other senior staff members to step up to the plate including: Kynan Pearson, Mike Wikan, and Tom Ivey.  They were senior designers on the Metroid Prime trilogy that would soon team up to design Donkey Kong Country Returns .   Kynan Pearson was responsible for the amazing level design in Donkey Kong Country Returns.  Mike Wikan. was in charge of the enemies and bosses.  Tom Ivey was in charge of the game’s mechanics. Kynan Pearson and Mike Wikan both ended up leaving the company after Donkey Kong Country Returns was completed.  Kynan Pearson would go on to work on “Halo 4″ while Mike Witkan would go on to work for id software.  To better summarize, two out of the three designers responsible for DK Country Return’s genius level design and game play are no longer with the company.  According to Rezbit: Mike Wikan was the only one out of the three to have been around for Metroid Prime 1.

Note:  Significant portions of staff were lost and gained between MP1 and MP2 and between MP2 and MP3.

• After Donkey Kong Country Returns, other staff members that left Retro Studios included:
  • Mike Miller (Senior Engineering)
  • Monty Goulet (Sound Scripter for Donkey Kong Country Returns)
  • Chris Torres (Contract Animation)
  • Nick McBride (Contract Animation)
  • Mark Brady (Contract Art) – Environment artist who created models, textures, and other assets for DKC Returns
  • Michael Witt (Contract Art)

Nintendo push social media and video content on Wii U. HBO Go and Youtube might be coming.

Emily Rogers here.

So I’ve been doing some looking at random sites trying to dig up any information I can about Wii U.   I found some interesting information that I wanted to share.

Youtube app on Wii U?

http://jobview.monster.com/Google-Inc-Game-Console-Software-Engineer-YouTube-Job-San-Bruno-CA-110553878.aspx

Two days ago, Google posting a job offer (link above) on Monster.com.

“As part of our team you’ll be working as a Software Engineer developing versions of YouTube to work with next generation game consoles. You will have an opportunity to try novel and unconventional ideas and launch frequent experiments to the YouTube user base. You will have a chance to get immediate feedback on user interface, human interaction design, and interest. You will be working with a variety of languages during the development process.”

Another bullet point emphasizes “Build the next generation game-console-based TV experience with You Tube video content.”

As far as I’m concerned, Wii U is a next generation game console.

The ad then says “Deep technical knowledge of Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and/or Nintendo Wii“

Now yes.  Wii is not Wii U.  BUT…Wii does not currently have a Youtube app.  And there’s no way to watch Youtube on the Wii.

From my understanding (correct me if I’m wrong) but I’ve been told flash doesn’t work anymore on Wii’s Opera internet browser.  This is because Opera stopped updating the flash player.  This means that you can’t use Youtube on Wii without flash.   A Youtube application would solve the problem of not needing flash to watch videos on Wii U.

Xbox 360 already has a Youtube app.  And PS Vita is getting a Youtube app in June:  http://www.computerandvideogames.com/350273/ps-vita-getting-full-featured-youtube-app-in-june/

But things get more interesting…

I found another job posted 26 days ago that hints at Nintendo pushing for applications and social media.

Source:  http://jobview.monster.com/PHP-Web-Developer-Job-Cumming-GA-109480143.aspx

“Job Description: As a programmer on the LBM staff you will be working on projects ranging from custom-built PHP-based applications, mobile web applications, and social media apps. These applications rarely repeat themselves and each application is unique with its own set of puzzles. This position requires someone excited by new challenges willing to learn new things.”

A Little About Us: LBM is a boutique web development shop building custom solutions for medium to enterprise-level companies. We are a small team with challenging projects from companies like ESPN, Nintendo, Atlantis Hotel, Visa, and interesting startups.”

So Nintendo is a client/customer of a company that builds PHP based applications, mobile web applications, and social media apps.  Interesting.

Here’s more info on LBM’s mobile development:  http://lbm.co/services/mobile-development  Their site says:  “We provide a wide array of services revolving interactivity on a screen. “

I decided to keep looking around.  So far I was finding lots of interesting information through different job searches.  I went on Time Warner’s site doing job searches, and I found out that Nintendo is currently a client for HBO Go.

Source:  https://careers.timewarner.com/1033/ASP/TG/cim_jobdetail.asp?jobId=613646&partnerid=391&siteid=36

Job description:

“The Partner Manager position is responsible for the day-to-day relationship and ongoing marketing activities with several key Mobile, Tablet, Connected TV and Game Console digital partners for HBO GO and MAX GO. Partners include Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Samsung, Roku, as well as any new partners that will launch HBO/MAX GO in the future.”

The job description is saying Nintendo is a partner that plans to launch HBO Go in the near future.  I don’t think they could word it any clearer.

Anyways, these are just tiny tidbits that give the App rumor about Wii U more legitimacy.

Hope you guys enjoy E3.

Nintendo DS almost became “City Boy”.

Hi this is Emily Rogers with my first post on this blog.  I wanted to make my first post special so here it goes.

Two years ago, I had a chance to talk to some people who worked at Nintendo of America’s marketing department.  Through random discussion, I was told that Nintendo didn’t originally plan to call it Nintendo DS.  The successor to the Game Boy Advance was going to be called “City Boy”.  This took me back for a second.  “City Boy?”   Why City Boy?  Is it weird to expect such a name from a company that named their home consoles “Wii” and “Wii U” ?

Here was the explanation I received..

They had originally planned to keep the Game Boy brand going.  But even way back in 2003, Nintendo saw the threat of smartphone gaming.   And if you dig deep enough into patents, you’ll see Nintendo patented a cell phone gaming device in the early 2000′s.  There’s no mistake that the Game Boy brand was huge, but Nintendo wanted their handhelds to appeal to older gamers at a time when cell phone games were gaining more popularity.

Nintendo wanted people to carry their Nintendo handheld everywhere just like their phone.

“Game Boy” had the image of being a handheld for younger gamers, and Nintendo was determined to get rid of that image.

The name “Nintendo DS” was not the official name at E3 2004.  And they tip-toed around a few names.  One of those names was “City Boy” because it would appeal to a young adult urban audience who have a busy “always on the go” lifestyle.  “City Boy” was an attempt to make the Game Boy brand (seen as a child’s toy) sound more hip and adult.  This name made it possible for Nintendo to continue the Game Boy Brand while trying to appeal to an urban young adult crowd.  It makes sense too.  If you paid attention to DS’s marketing in the last 6 years, Nintendo made a massive attempt to get older people and women to take the Nintendo DS brand name seriously.

Nintendo assumed that people walking around a busy city filled with people would use features like Pictochat on a bus, movie theater,  schools, or at some social gathering.   Wi-Fi was not as mainstream back in 2004 like it is in 2012. Nintendo assumed people could head into a cafe or restaurant with wifi to log into their DS.  Again, it was building on the aspect that you bring your “City Boy” everywhere with you in the city.

Nintendo wanted gamers not to feel embarrassed of playing games in public.  To make portable gaming more acceptable like playing games on your cell phone.  The idea of “City Boy” was to get you to carry and play your Nintendo handheld more often in public (hence the word “City”) like your cell phone.

Fast forward to today.

Look at how much Nintendo has pushed the idea of spotpass and streetpass in the 3DS.  They have pushed this feature really hard.  You even get tokens for carrying your 3DS to work or school.  3DS basically tries to push the idea that they originally wanted with DS:  Getting people moving and taking their DS with them everywhere they go.  They want you to bring your Nintendo handheld with you everywhere just like your phone.

Now you’re probably thinking: This sounds like bull.

Nintendo of America filed a trademark for “City Boy” on March 18, 2004 and it is still alive at uspto.gov

They filed the trademark 2 months before E3 2004 when the successor to Game Boy Advance would be revealed.   Why would they trademark something with “Boy” in the name that is described as hardware (not software) 2 months before revealing the successor to Game Boy Advance?

And why was it called Nintendo DS instead of “City Boy”?  Because Nintendo thought this handheld had a big chance to fail and they didn’t want it to tarnish the Game Boy brand name.  Iwata was worried gamers wouldn’t understand the idea of a handheld with two screens.

“It is a ‘unique’ machine, so not everybody will understand it right away. There might only be 10 to 15 people applauding during its unveiling at E3, but they’ll understand it once they touch it. At the least, it should serve as a hint towards [our] next-generation console.”

-Satoru Iwata, GameSpot translation (March 1, 2004)

Source: http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=515

Note: You can see that Iwata was very uncertain of how gamers would perceive the Nintendo DS in 2004.

Remember, the GameCube was in last place against PS2/Xbox and the only thing going good for Nintendo was “Game Boy” during that time.  Nintendo was not super successful in 2004 like they are in 2012.  It was a transitional period for Nintendo to re brand itself and it’s products.

The trademark, which was listed under goods and services, listed electronics as an example.

Type in Pikmin on a trademark search, and you get descriptions like ” ELECTRONIC GAME SOFTWARE, INTERACTIVE GAME DISCS, INTERACTIVE GAME PROGRAMS, INTERACTIVE GAME SOFTWARE, MUSICAL SOUND RECORDINGS, VIDEO GAME DISCS”

You don’t see that description for City Boy.  It was not software.  It was hardware.  It was filed with other electronics.  You see it filed with the category of electronic goods and services such as “DVD players, cellular phones, computers, cd players, microphones, and LCD screens”.   This means that City Boy was hardware.

TRADEMARK INFORMATION

Here are images taken from the website of the United States Trademark and Patent Office:

Go here.

http://www.uspto.gov/index.jsp

Go to Trademark Search.

Type in City Boy for your Trademark Search.  It should be listed at #8 on the list.   The trademark should be Live, not Dead.  Here’s serial and reg numbers in case you need help finding it.

Serial Number: 79007567   Reg Number: 3162803

Past Iwata quotes: http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=515

• “The innovative machine has a short-range networking capability. It will introduce a refreshing new experience if it’s played by one person alone, but we’re hoping that it will be even more fun when it’s played with multiple [people].” 

-Satoru Iwata, GameSpot translation (March 1, 2004)

Emphasize “Short-range networking capability” and think about how Nintendo tried to get Wi-Fi hot spots in tons of cities.  Nintendo created thousands upon thousands of hotspots in multiple countries and continents in restaurants and stores.

• “[It] will enable fun and movement not seen before. I expect it to become a third pillar, next to GameCube and Game Boy.”
  -Satoru Iwata, Gamasutra (January 07, 2004)

Note: This quote tells you that Nintendo had a “Plan B” in case Nintendo DS failed, and it wasn’t the true successor to Game Boy.

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