Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA

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Garth
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PostEx-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Garth » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:36 pm

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Three of the key developers behind Nintendo's popular Metroid Prime series recently jumped ship to form a new development studio that will be dedicated to creating games for all three platforms under a publishing deal with Electronic Arts, the publisher announced today.

Armature Studio, located in Austin, Texas, is headed by Mark Pacini, Todd Keller and Jack Mathews, the former Game Director, Art Director and Principal Technology Engineer of the Nintendo franchise.

In a recent interview with Kotaku, Pacini said that the trio formed the new company some time in April and signed their exclusive publishing deal with EA two to three months later.

"EA approached us with this really interesting business model of creating a small studio that is only comprised of industry veterans," Pacini said. "The goal is to create new IP with a very, very small team and to produce a game without having to grow that team."

Pacini said he and the others at Armature are excited to finally be working on games for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and not just the Wii and DS.

"From my stand point, I've never worked on any other console," he said. "I've always made games for Nintendo. I'm reinvigorated. I'm really excited about what other opportunities are out there. How can we use Xbox Live? How can we use the power of the PS3?"

"I think it really opens it up," he said. "I'm not saying it was by any means restrictive working for Nintendo. We had this palette to work on, the Wii and the DS, but now we have everything."

"That's just really, really exciting."

Retro Studios was founded in Austin, Texas in 1998. In 2000, Nintendo gave the studio the license to the Metroid franchise to help recreate the game for the Gamecube. In 2002 the developer relased Metroid Prime. In 2004 they released Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and last year released Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Wii.

Under their current contract with Electronic Arts, Armature wouldn't be able to develop a Metroid Prime game for Nintendo. Not that that means they've lost interest in the franchise they helped revive.

"Personally, I would love to work on another Metroid game," said Keller. "I have been in love with Metroid for years. We had a chance to recreate a game that was created way back when. That was awesome."

The deal with Electronic Arts is an experiment of sorts, Pacini said. Under the agreement, the studio will report to EA General Manager Lou Castle as part of EA's secretive Blueprint Division. Castle is acting Executive Producer of the Armature Studio games. Instead of operating like typical game development studios, the core team at Armature Studio will work on game prototypes. Once a game is ready for development a bulk of that work would be shifted to an external team or another studio, while the Armature people would follow the project as directors.

"We would still be very hands on," Pacini said.

While studios have tried versions of this in the past, none have tried to keep a central core of directors on to supervise the projects, Pacini said.

"We are interested to see how it goes past the prototype stage," he said. "Our studio is the grand experiment. It’s kind of a really different take on how to make these larger scale games."

Armature and EA hopes that this new approach to game development could cut down on the risk a bit and allow developers and publishers to take greater risks.

"It’s really reasonable to go out on a limb and take a risk that we kinda think might be cool," Pacini said. "That’s the sort of environment we are trying to set up. That’s what we are about as a studio."

Pacini and Keller declined to say what specifically their new studio is currently working on with Electronic Arts, but said, at least initially, they want to stick to the types of games the group are comfortable with.

"We all have very different background: Action, adventures and shooters," Keller said. "We have already started (on some games) for sure. We are working every day. We are in the preliminary stages.

"EA has been very very supportive of all of our efforts."

Armature Studio is looking to hire several key staff by the end of the year, Pacini said. They will be at the Austin Game Developers Conference later this week, he added.

http://kotaku.com/5049329/metroid-prime ... ture-games

I really like the sound of that, nice one EA :)

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Extralife
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Extralife » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:45 pm

So long as they don't sink to developing just another FPS then it could be good.

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SEP
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by SEP » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:57 pm

Extralife wrote:So long as they don't sink to developing just another FPS then it could be good.


I seriously doubt anyone would be moaning if they knocked out one as good as Metroid Prime.

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Alvin Flummux » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:17 am

Hmm... an interesting move, but not an uncommon one, as we all well know.

I'll be quite interested to see what Armature can come up with under EA, given that EA has been quite good of late compared to how it used to be. Maybe we'll get something along the lines of one of the projects Retro was working on before Nintendo stepped in and made Metroid Prime its number one priority? I doubt they'd go for another sci-fi FPS, they're probably sick to death of that whole area right now, but I'm sure they'll be able to use the experience garnered making Metroid to great effect in another genre.

What about something in the horror genre? Metroid Prime 3 had several incredibly creepy locales...

Last edited by Alvin Flummux on Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Poobik the Hare
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Poobik the Hare » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:25 am

MCN wrote:
Extralife wrote:So long as they don't sink to developing just another FPS then it could be good.


I seriously doubt anyone would be moaning if they knocked out one as good as Metroid Prime.


opinion:
it is somewhat different developing a game for consoles like the 360/ps3 that are home to some of the best fps as opposed to the rather limited market of Nintendo consoles (cube/Wii) where a below par fps will stand out, such as previous prime games.

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TheTurnipKing
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by TheTurnipKing » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:48 am

Indeed. In such august company, even good games can be lost in the crowd.

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The Alchemist Penguin
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by The Alchemist Penguin » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:57 am

This sounds like a great idea. Although I'd hate to be the studio that gets the "hand me down" ideas.

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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by bear » Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:08 am

They can't even come up with a good studio name. :|

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Carlos
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Carlos » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:32 am

Will they produce anything of any note though? Most 2nd and 3rd party studios that collaberate with Nintendo on projects seem to do very well but when they leave they just bomb: Silicon Knights, Rare, Factor 5, Free Radical (Kinda), AM2 (who have done nothing of note since F0GX) and now, possibly a Retro Studio break off.

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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Floex » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:24 pm

No one mention the logo. Man, i'm loving that!

And EA is forming some great partnerships, they hardly seem to be putting a foot wonrg these days

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Jay Adama
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Jay Adama » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:37 pm

Carlos wrote:Will they produce anything of any note though? Most 2nd and 3rd party studios that collaberate with Nintendo on projects seem to do very well but when they leave they just bomb: Silicon Knights, Rare, Factor 5, Free Radical (Kinda), AM2 (who have done nothing of note since F0GX) and now, possibly a Retro Studio break off.


That wasn't AM2 it was Amusement Vision (formerly AM4) who are now back internally in SEGA. Most recently they did the Yakuza games

Armature and EA hopes that this new approach to game development could cut down on the risk a bit and allow developers and publishers to take greater risks.


Does this make any sense?

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Extralife
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Extralife » Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:26 pm

bear wrote:They can't even come up with a good studio name. :|

What's wrong with it?

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Mockmaster
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Mockmaster » Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:33 pm

Armature may refer to:

* Armature (computer animation), the kinematic chains used in computer animation to simulate the motions of virtual characters
* Armature (electrical engineering), one of the two principal electrical components of an electromechanical machine
* Armature (sculpture), a framework around which a sculpture is built

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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by bear » Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:36 pm

It just strikes me as dull for some reason. I'll be interested in whatever they come up with but there structure sems a lot like what Wideload are doing but they haven't produced anything exceptional yet.

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The Alchemist Penguin
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by The Alchemist Penguin » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:32 pm

Mockmaster wrote:Armature may refer to:

* Armature (computer animation), the kinematic chains used in computer animation to simulate the motions of virtual characters
* Armature (electrical engineering), one of the two principal electrical components of an electromechanical machine
* Armature (sculpture), a framework around which a sculpture is built


Or:

Armature; noun; pronounced "Are Mature" - A sign that the developers no longer make "kiddy" games for the Nintendo Wii and DS.

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TheTurnipKing
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by TheTurnipKing » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:58 pm

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:
Mockmaster wrote:Armature may refer to:

* Armature (computer animation), the kinematic chains used in computer animation to simulate the motions of virtual characters
* Armature (electrical engineering), one of the two principal electrical components of an electromechanical machine
* Armature (sculpture), a framework around which a sculpture is built


Or:

Armature; noun; pronounced "Are Mature" - A sign that the developers no longer make "kiddy" games for the Nintendo Wii and DS.


a new development studio that will be dedicated to creating games for all three platforms

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The Alchemist Penguin
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by The Alchemist Penguin » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:01 pm

You can make "mature" games for the Wii, you know. Plus, Metroid Prime was hardly a "kiddy" series.

OR: It was an obvious joke about all Nintendo games being for kids. :|

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TheTurnipKing
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by TheTurnipKing » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:14 pm

Eh, take your pick. I just thought it was interesting that they haven't officially decided that they're not going to work on Nintendo systems.

Though Metroid is a relatively immature game, though I should clarify that I don't mean that to it's detriment. Just that the universe is very pulp-sciencefictiony. It's full of Science Fiction stuff that "just works" and is never really explored in any detail. Compared to Halo, for example, where the universe is mapped out in sometimes excruciating detail.

Metroid doesn't feel like it has any serious points to offer. As I say, that's not nessicarily to it's detriment. But in many ways it's very focussed on being a game, which makes it an interesting point of comparison with the many many other sci-fi First-person games on the market.

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Oxx
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PostRe: Ex-Metroid Prime devs form studio + partner with EA
by Oxx » Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:53 pm

Sounds like a pretty good deal for them. They definitely left Retro at the right time. Their stock will probably never be higher than it is right now.

It will be interesting to see how things work out for them. Mistwalker have had some success with the business model. Blue Dragon hardly set the charts alight around the world, but I imagine doing concept work and pre-production in-house before outsourcing the grunt-work to Artoon is quite a cost-effective way to produce games in the current climate.


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