Retro Studios

Retro Studios is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas, USA. It was founded in 1998 by Jeff Spangenberg as a second-party developer to Nintendo. It is currently wholly owned by Nintendo, making it a first-party developer, with over 50 employees.

History
Retro Studios struggled in its early years, dealing with several cancelled projects and lay-offs. However, Nintendo came to their aid by offering the company the license to the dormant Metroid franchise, whose last game was Super Metroid, released in 1994.

The first big project that Retro Studios worked on with Nintendo was Metroid Prime, one of the biggest titles for the Nintendo GameCube, receiving both critical and public acclaim. In 2001, then-president Jeff Spangenberg sold his share of stock in the company to Nintendo and left shortly thereafter.

In 2003, Michael Kelbaugh was named president of Retro Studios, and the following year released Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which proved to be just as much of a critical success as the first game.

Retro Studios has recently completed Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Nintendo Wii. Their latest Metroid title is the Metroid Prime Trilogy, a compilation of Retro's three Prime titles on one disk. Their next project is currently under development in union with Nintendo of America, rumored to be a remake of The Legend of Zelda.

Canceled Projects

 * Action Adventure (canceled in favor of Metroid Prime)
 * Car Combat (Thunder Rally)
 * NFL Retro Football
 * Raven Blade (canceled in favor of Metroid Prime)

Nintendo GameCube

 * Metroid Prime (2002)
 * Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004)

Wii

 * Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007)
 * Metroid Prime Trilogy (2009)