This is definitely something most people don't know.  The retro staff had huge turnover in terms of designers and programmers while still trying to manage multiple projects.  Even the CEO of Retro was exalted from his position in the last year of the first Metroid Prime!

You can read all about it here http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=267&page=1 

Not only that, but this happens in many studios today, perhaps not as much, but who knows maybe even more so.  Nintendo doesn't necessarily need to find good people, they just need to find an outside studio that they can have a decent amount of control in.

I don't completely agree. Obviously they recognized the talent in Retro before making the changes, so they are still looking out for a certain type (and quality) of developer.

I think what they need to find is a company of mature, experienced talented individuals who would also be willing to put up with insane amounts of crap and tyranny from Nintendo... at least for the first ten years or so...

If you look at all the other options. This is the Right thing for Nintendo to do.

If you look at the option nintneod have right now, they have 3 tough option's

Might as well pick the one they are good at.

I don't completely disagree, but there's some evidence that being overseen by Nintendo increases the output quality of many companies. There's been lots of talk about Retro's history already, but a more recent example is Next Level Games, whose Nintendo-supervised games (two Mario Strikers games and Punch-Out!!) are generally held in higher esteem than their other games (NHL Hitz Pro, Spiderman: Friend or Foe, Ticket to Ride, Jungle Speed, Transformers: Cybertron Adventures, Ghost Recon Wii).

Of course, many Nintendo-published games are also junk, so it's no guarantee of quality, but I'm willing to believe that for some studios it's helpful.

This is always a concern with Nintendo - how much can they really keep relying on 1rst party software.  They need to find out what their long term strategy will be AFTER Miyamoto.  He is one man and will not last forever.

When I hear talk of "Nintendo Philosophy" I often wonder how much that applies to the whole company.  It's true that nintendo-supervised games often deliver in big ways, but is it because of the company or because of Miyamoto?  Whatever their philosophy is, it has to start applying to Nintendo as a while and not just that one man.  Because if it applied to the company as a whole then I have a feeling they wouldn't need to worry so much about 2nd party support.

I'm pretty certain that Miyamoto's reach is exaggerated, albeit less than it was during the Gamecube days. I don't think he has much, if anything, to do with games from devs like Intelligent System, HAL, or Monolith, for instance.

But I agree that having more voices within Nintendo can only be a good thing. I think back to the NES days, for instance, when Yokoi's games stood in open contrast to those of other Nintendo producers, and how that variety was nice to have (even though I generally didn't favor Yokoi's games at that time myself).

It's funny I was thinking the same.  Still that genius is passed down to others working with who-ever is creating this direction leadership.   That experience will move on with the company as long as the apprentices dont move on to new company's.

I say it is Nintendo's philosophy" and yes one man must lead it, but we have to remember. They have been making Games since 1889.   

o.0?   They must have figuered why games are fun by now.

what Tanabe means is that they need more studios with Retro's work ethic and passion. Of course finding talent that rivals Retro is rare, but what Nintendo wants more than anything else are people that think like the various dev teams at Nintendo: they want to make games that are fun and appeal to a wide number of people. Of all the companies in the industry Nintendo seems to be one that wants to garner new talent with fresh ideas instead of just pawning them off to churn out another clone of some franchise.

How about a studio in Europe?  Nintendo haven't had one since RARE left and both Sony and MS have their fair share of them.  Headstrong is the only one that instantly springs to my mind, but I'm sure there are more