Retro Studios

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 begun 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 of 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.