1) Losing talent isn't necessarily an indication of problems other than pay. As a developer, you could start out as low as $50,000 a year and within 7+ years be at a senior level position making $130000+ a year, and I live in Missouri FYI, lower income state but much better cost of living numbers than places like California that more than make up for it.
2) There were/are other Retro projects being worked on during the same period. At least one major one was cancelled, if I recall. I have said for a while now I wouldn't be surprised if Retro releases two games within a couple years of each other. Also, I suspect many of us underestimated how much of a disaster Bandai Namco's version of MP4 was.
For a while, I figured Retro would just take over an ongoing project and at least find some value in their work, but I no longer think that. I believe MP4 literally started from scratch in 2019, so they've been developing a major AAA game for 3 years. Most major games take 3-5 years to make, most AA 2-3 years.
If Switch 2 comes out in a normal cycle time (which would be sometime in 2023) then I think MP4 will be a launch title made for it. If Switch 2 is pushed back to early or mid 2024, I still think that. If it's pushed back to late 2024 or 2025, I think MP4 will be a Switch 1 game with a port for Switch 2.
At this point, I'm hoping it's a Switch 2 launch title with graphics and innovations that will blow my mind rather than a late Switch title with unimpressive visuals due to the fact that we are already used to what the Switch can pump out. Other series can keep on coming, but certain series in my opinion should be reserved for when Nintendo can blow our minds with visuals, and it's hard to do that late gen but very easy with a new generation and brand new engine.
Last edited by Dulfite - on 29 January 2022
