Jumpin said:
If I were a betting man:
1. Metroid Prime gets shelved indefinitely at some point.
2. The game gets released, but with disappointing reception.
I hate to be the guy with the negative opinion on the situation dealing with Retro, but the writing is on the wall in thick black marker.
I suspect Nintendo wishes to shut them down, but also doesn't want to risk a PR nightmare.
Metroid Prime 4 isn't really a major point in their strategy, but a lot of fans have the perception the game is of key importance. From Nintendo's POV, Metroid Prime already failed, they are presenting this is a backup plan.
Keep these points in mind:
* When Retro did Metroid Prime, their numbers were about 120 employees: that's over double the size of the current staff.
* When Retro worked on Metroid Prime, they did double to triple time shifts - so realistically, they needed 200-300 staff for that game.
* A successful Metroid Prime game today will need larger staff than they did 20 years ago: 400-500?
* Since Nintendo has announced the shift, they have added only two new job positions: a QA manager on contract (limited time) and an outsource manager.
* Retro Studios has two other positions from earlier that have yet to be filled - I can't imagine in Austin Texas no one wants to take them, it might be that Nintendo is not really taking their filling seriously.
* It looked like Nintendo was preparing to close the studio last year due to downsizing.
If Retro Studios fails with Metroid Prime 4, they will gain substantial ill will from fans.
This means Nintendo can avoid the PR backlash by shutting down the studio.
It appears they have thrown Metroid Prime 4 on Retro so they'll fail and look bad. Nintendo can shut them down without PR issues.
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I will continue to choose to deny this premise. There are a lot of assumptions in this theory (as with my own) and the secrecy of Nintendo's affairs leaves neither of us with a lot of support.
But your version hurts my heart and I'm just not prepared at the moment to allow it to be a reality.
