headquarters in austin texas . the company moved to a new location in 2011 . type subsidiary industry video games founded october 1998 ; 18 years ago 1998 10 austin texas u.s. founder jeff spangenberg headquarters austin texas united states key people michael kelbaugh president & ceo tim little vince joly ryan harris products metroid prime series donkey kong country series number of employees 70 2016 1 parent nintendo 2002 present website www.retrostudios.com retro studios inc. is an american first party video game developer and division of nintendo based in austin texas . the studio is best known for its work on the metroid prime series and the donkey kong country series and has contributed to several other nintendo game projects such as metroid prime hunters and mario kart 7 . retro was founded in 1998 as an alliance between nintendo and former iguana entertainment founder jeff spangenberg hoping to create titles for the then upcoming gamecube aiming at an older demographic . the company began working on four different titles all of which were finally cancelled once retro focused their resources on metroid prime the first metroid title developed outside japan . the success of metroid prime led retro to work on two sequels and later to become involved with reviving the donkey kong series with donkey kong country returns . contents 1 history 1.1 1998 2002 founding and metroid prime 1.2 2003 2009 the metroid prime trilogy 1.3 2010 present donkey kong country series and other projects 2 list of games developed 2.1 cancelled projects 3 reception 3.1 sales 3.2 awards 4 references 5 external links history edit 1998 2002 founding and metroid prime edit further information metroid prime development retro studios was founded in october 1998 as an alliance between nintendo and former iguana entertainment founder jeff spangenberg . nintendo saw an opportunity for the new studio to create games for the upcoming nintendo gamecube targeting an older demographic in the same vein as iguana entertainment s successful turok series for the nintendo 64 . 2 retro began with 4 key people in late 1998 and opened an office in austin texas in early 1999 with a staff of 25 people including several former iguana employees . 2 despite not having access to gamecube development kits 3 the studio immediately began work on four projects for the gamecube an untitled action adventure game with a working title of action adventure a vehicular combat game with the working title car combat also known as thunder rally an american football simulator named nfl retro football and role playing game raven blade . by the time development began the studio had already grown in size to 120 employees . 3 the company continued to grow during production eventually peaking at over 200 employees . 4 the working environment was chaotic with development getting behind schedule and nintendo executives complaining on how the games turned out . 5 in 2000 producer shigeru miyamoto visited the studio . he was upset at most of the titles except for their demonstration of the action adventure game engine which led miyamoto to suggest that retro could use the engine to develop a new title in the metroid series . 4 shortly before the 2000 nintendo space world conference nintendo granted retro the license to create metroid prime and retro shifted all development resources from action adventure to the new title . 2 retro eventually cancelled development of their other projects to focus solely on metroid prime . in february 2001 the company ended development of both nfl retro football and thunder rally laying off about 20 employees . 6 although retro demonstrated raven blade at e3 in 2001 the development team was plagued by technical setbacks . in july 2001 retro cancelled the project retaining only nine team members to work on metroid prime . 7 on may 2 2002 nintendo secured 1 million worth of retro studios stock from spangenberg and reclassified the company as a first party developer and division of nintendo . 8 after the sale spangenberg stepped down as president and was replaced by steve barcia the founder of simtex . during the final nine months of metroid prime s development retro s staff worked 80 to 100 hour weeks to reach their final milestone . 4 despite its troubled production cycle and initial skepticism from fans 9 the game was released on november 17 2002 in north america to universal critical acclaim and commercial success 10 selling over two million units worldwide . 11 2003 2009 the metroid prime trilogy edit further information development of metroid prime 2 echoes metroid prime 3 corruption and metroid prime trilogy . after the critical and commercial success of metroid prime nintendo asked retro studios to produce a sequel . the developers decided against recycling the features of the first game while creating metroid prime 2 echoes and instead used new sound models weapon effects and art designs . 12 a multiplayer component was also added to the game . 13 on april 2003 steve barcia left the company . michael kelbaugh who had worked with nintendo for over 15 years was appointed president a job he retains to this date . 14 retro tried to include some extras such as a hidden version of super metroid but were halted by the short development time . 13 producer kensuke tanabe later revealed in an interview that the game was just about thirty percent complete three months before the strict deadline nintendo had set for a release in the 2004 holiday season . 15 the critical reception for metroid prime 2 echoes was very positive 16 but earned some criticism on the game s high difficulty . 17 18 sales for echoes were lower than the first prime with a total of 800 000 units . 4 retro studios was then put to produce the next game in the metroid prime series titled metroid prime 3 corruption . retro intended to give metroid prime 3 corruption larger environments than metroid prime 2 echoes and enable the game to run at 60 frames per second . 19 the developers were also interested in using the wiiconnect24 feature to provide additional content for the game that would be accessible from the internet . 19 retro announced that corruption would be the final chapter of the prime series and would have a plot about closure told against the backdrop of an epic struggle . 20 after the wii remote was revealed nintendo demonstrated how metroid prime 3 would take advantage of the controller s special abilities with a version of echoes modified for the wii and shown at the tokyo game show in 2005 . 21 originally envisioned as a launch title for the wii in november 2006 19 corruption suffered many delays but eventually being released on august 27 2007 22 to generally positive reviews 23 and over 1.60 million copies sold worldwide . 24 while retro was busy with the prime sequels they had to pass on the nintendo ds title metroid prime hunters . the eventual developer nintendo software technology nst worked closely with retro to design the game s art and characters to make sure that they fit into the overall metroid series . 25 26 in 2004 while retro studios was finishing echoes senior producer bryan walker suggested to studio president michael kelbaugh to do something for the fans by putting all the games together on a single disc in a collectors trilogy edition . kelbaugh sent the proposal to nintendo and the company accepted . 27 the compilation metroid prime trilogy started being developed shortly after the release of corruption and was released in 2009 . 4 2010 present donkey kong country series and other projects edit further information development of donkey kong country returns mario kart 7 and donkey kong country tropical freeze . in april 2008 retro saw the departure of three key developers designer mark pacini art director todd keller and principal technology engineer jack mathews 28 who went on to form their own company armature studio . 29 30 around the same time shigeru miyamoto asked fellow producer kensuke tanabe to recommend a studio that could develop a new donkey kong game and tanabe recommended retro . kelbaugh had worked on the donkey kong country series during his years at nintendo of america and had interest in continuing with the franchise . retro accepted the task and thus started development of donkey kong country returns . 31 32 similar to new super mario bros. the game was developed with the intention to invoke nostalgic feelings in the player with its art style and sound while trying to provide them with new gameplay experiences . 32 returns employs fully polygonal 3d graphics with three times the amount of textures and polygons that corruption offered 31 and over the course of six months two thirds of the game s tools and engine had to be rewritten by the programmers . 31 development accelerated at the outset of 2010 and the project was just beginning to cohere as a game around the time of e3 when it was officially announced to the press . 33 although the game was set for release in autumn that year the team still had 70 levels to create or refine . 34 after the development of returns was completed two more key departures happened at retro with senior designers kynan pearson and mike wikan moving on to 343 industries and id software respectively . 35 36 at e3 2011 it was announced during nintendo s developer roundtable that retro studios would be involved in the development of mario kart 7 for nintendo 3ds . 37 at first retro would contribute assets to developing one of the donkey kong themed levels 38 but the number evolved to the stage design of sixteen tracks in the late stages of development as the nintendo ead crew started working on other projects and the game would not be finished before the december 2011 deadline . 39 in 2012 it was revealed that retro studios had received a wii u development kit and was reportedly working on a wii u game . 40 miyamoto has said he would like to work with retro studios in an installment for the legend of zelda ; however he says that the current game retro studios was working on is not related to zelda . 41 it was also revealed that retro studios hired staff members from naughty dog and the now defunct companies midway austin and vigil games the latter being known for creating the darksiders series . 42 at e3 2012 nintendo of america president reggie fils amie told ign in an interview that retro is currently hard at work on an untitled project for the wii u. 43 it has been confirmed on retro s facebook page that the studio had moved from their original location to a new location still in austin texas . in their nintendo direct at e3 2013 nintendo announced donkey kong country tropical freeze the sequel to donkey kong country returns . the game was retro s first wii u game and was released in february 2014 . original series composer david wise returned to score the game . on february 28 2014 kensuke tanabe announced that retro studios was working on a new game which ceo michael kelbaugh declared had been in development for a few months since tropical freeze was finished . 44 on august 2015 however during an interview about metroid prime federation force tanabe said that he was not quite sure about what retro studios was working on leaving the impression that he was no longer involved with their unannounced project . 45 list of games developed edit list of video games developed by retro studios title genre s platform s year producer s director s metroid prime co produced 1 action adventure gamecube 2002 shigeru miyamoto mark pacini metroid prime