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.

Not that I don't like Rare, but I don't think they could do great things for Nintendo right now, besides  new DKC game. Just look at all the crap they have on the 360.

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

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.

This is very true, and has also been reflected in numerous Iwata Asks interviews. The best example that comes to mind was the interviews with Team Ninja about Other M where it was said multiple times how both teams were surprised at how similarly they approached game design.

I for one would be excited to see this collaboration continue. I think there also certain teams within Namco, Capcom and Konami that would be good fits to work together with Nintendo.

The type of situation I can imagine in Japan is that of having one or two teams within each major publisher that are dedicated to Nintendo platforms. The ownership could even be shared with N if said companies wanted to reduce risk. In this manner, some of Nintendo's philosophy would also leak out to other Japanese publishers who could apply it on their other games. That could also be a big incentive for them since it would definitely increase sales in the long run...

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.

Well, Retro have released some of the best games this gen for Nintendo, and in the past 10 years in general, so obviously they want more...

I say, they should have bought Square, Enix, Capcom and Namco when they had the chance...

But with companies like Mistwalker and Monolith Soft working for them now, as well as the discontinuation of the Touch!! Generations line, it looks like Nintendo are certianly looking to appeal more to the 'Hardcore' Nintendo crowd, and that's a good thing.

So it's obvious they want more developers

Mistwalker isn't owned by them, if I'm not mistaken.

I thought Nintendo bourght them at the start of '10?

Or am I thinking of Monolith Soft >.<