Where was the denial? EAD obviously made most of the game, but Retro was rumored to have made some of it.
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Glassdoor Reviews of Retro point to trouble in Texas
- Thread starter Vire
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Where was the denial? EAD obviously made most of the game, but Retro was rumored to have made some of it.
While Ill take this with a grain of salt I fully believe there is a problem with upper management. Having a Japanese boss that doesn't understand how things works in the west is never a good thing.
That rumor never had the slightest basis and spread before it was known that Labo was from Nintendo EAD.
That rumor was basically like this thread.
Oh I'm just listing Nintendo's games.
If we're talking 2D platformers from all publishers, I'm not even sure Tropical Freeze breaks the top ten.
I would be really happy if they were working on another DK game. (with King K. Rool, Lanky, Tiny, and Squitter and Enguarde)
They're very talented! I'm sure whatever they are working on will be great. I wish them the best.
They're very talented! I'm sure whatever they are working on will be great. I wish them the best.
The Vegas comment got me curious. I checked and couldn't find any noteworthy game developers there. Anyone have any idea what that could be referring to?
It's probably a troll review since it came out on the same day as Kotaku talking about their project that was in serious trouble.
Not sure there's anything deeper to look into it.
Not to say that there isn't trouble or bullshit in the company, but four negative reviews on Glassdoor isn't really indicative of a trend or a major issue.
Jason most likely understands that.
Jason most likely understands that.
The employer should have never let it get that bad and you're profoundly naive if you think companies will change everything because of a review. These reviews aren't here for the company or for you or I but for potential applicants.
Stop shitting up the thread with your revelations about Glassdoor reviews being potentially problematic, ffs. This is just one piece of a larger puzzle.
I was really hoping to see Nintendo plant their flag a little deeper into the west when it comes to dev output. I mean, think about what PlayStation featured at E3. Their first party output is being largely carried by the west while Nintendo's one notable studio is almost completely MIA for half a decade. I really wish they'd dip into the reserves and throw some cash and clout at this problem.
I was really hoping to see Nintendo plant their flag a little deeper into the west when it comes to dev output. I mean, think about what PlayStation featured at E3. Their first party output is being largely carried by the west while Nintendo's one notable studio is almost completely MIA for half a decade. I really wish they'd dip into the reserves and throw some cash and clout at this problem.
The reviews (for what little they're worth) seem to suggest that Retro's Western management is the issue, and that they want Nintendo to step in and fix it.
Some of that talent went on to make ReCore and Batman: Blackgate.
cackling tbh
Its a voluntary review site. People are more likely to write a negative review when something goes wrong then a positive one when things are working as expected.
In the words of God from Futurama: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all".
In the words of God from Futurama: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all".
Not really, there's a lot of divisiveness among DK fans, but I don't think it's outrageous to suggest that many within the fanbase would be happy to put DKC1, 2 or 3 above Tropical Freeze.
I mean, I'm not sure they have much western management at this point... Stephen Dupree and Vince Joly were the people leading the studio and now Dupree is making Metroid knockoff PS VR games for Playful and Vince Joly is back to working on the art stuff alone.
No one in the company has listed themselves as the new lead game designer or creative director either which feels weird. And they haven't hired a lead game designer or creative director either.
What sounds suspiciously to what anyone who is in a forum like this would say.
Could have said the same about Sony Santa Monica Studio and look how that turned out. Retro might as well have a cancelt game and started from scratch.
Exactly. I'm 100% Vire isn't one to try and stir up trouble or something.
Either way, I'm getting pretty annoyed by people attacking posters on here for posting negative news. People will jump on you and say you have an agenda or some bullshit like that. Or that you are just looking for outrage.
In this case Vire has done a good job of bringing attention to this topic, while posters itt hilariously defend Retro, claim Glassdoor is not to be trusted and say that Vire is just trying to stir shit up.
Wow.
You're kind of ignoring the points that the poster is making though. It is hard to verify since basically anyone can use it, people do tend to be more vocal more when they don't like things as opposed to when they do like and/or love something, and using two reviews to extrapolate an issue out to the whole company is a joke.
All of the assumptions about issues at Retro could very well be true, however using two Glassdoor reviews is a horrible way to open up a discussion about it because it's an absolutely awful metric to go by, especially when it's two reviews.
That's not really the company management though. Nintendo set up the brass that runs Retro Studios, Michael Kelbaugh the president comes from NOA.
Exactly, maybe they spent 3 years doing a game, they had to cancel it and they started a new one a couple of years ago.
Those things happen, it's not something catastrophic, precisely being first allows them to do that.
Blizzard does it all the time.
All of that sounds really bad. It feels like Retro is in a really bad spot. Hope they don't just get turned into a studio that works or ports and assists other games development.
Sony Santa Monica was constantly talking about their project for years though not at all similar.
If you wanted to discuss the problems going on at Retro studio then I feel your OP failed. No one is saying "Lalala everything is fine" you're just making that up because you're angry that your thread backfired as it's much easier to answer to made up critiques than to the actual points raised by people. There are credible signs of big issues at Retro mentionned in this thread but glassdoor isn't a good indication of those. It's only two reviews for once and they can be written by anybody without any sort of background check. People are much more likely to complain than to praise their company. Positive reviews are often enforced by the companies themselves. It's also a way for disgruntled employees to vent.
If you want to give people the full picture write all of the rest of the evidence in your OP and rename the thread imo.
You may have an argument about DKC or DKC 2 but 3 is outright garbo.
None of them have precise platforming compared to Retro's DKC games anyway.
You can like the theme, enemies or the bonus levels but for everything else Retro's DKCs are masterclass in designs that Rare very seldom reached let alone in the worst main DKC game they released.
You're just listing a bunch of great games. Kind of a silly thing to argue.
Though putting DKC3 above that (when it isn't even regarded as the best of the original trilogy) seems very strange. I love the game but TF has better level design. Simple as that.
TF is one of the best of all time. Unquestionably. It stands alongside Yoshi's island, SMB3 and Mario World. If you put nostalgia aside, there is an argument to be made that it is better.
There are two reviews posted in the last four years with Retro.
One of them looks legit (the April one)
One of them is probably a troll (the May 14th one since it came out on the exact day of Kotaku rumors about the studio going through serious trouble).
I'm sure things are going badly at Retro... not sure how many in here disagree with that (which is good to see after the wild denials of this point in past Nintendo threads).
But one 2/5 Glassdoor review in the last four years is extremely uncompelling evidence compared to:
-Retro not releasing a new game in 5+ years (since if their new game was Q1 2019, it probably would have been shown)
-Retro's lead game designer leaving the company
-Retro's creative director maybe getting demoted
-Retro probably having a game cancelled according to Kotaku.
-Retro having no lead game designer or creative director currently based on LinkedIn.
Seriously doubt they spent 4 years on a port. They were probably working on something else and just had a small team doing that.
I don't know man. These new "people" gave us two Donkey Kong Country games, one of which might be one of the greatest games of all time.
To be fair, we knew what Sony Santa Monica was doing during the "break" though. Do we know anything about Retro? I assumed it was Metroid Prime 4, but looking it up, it might be by... Bamco of all things?
So on top of all the aforementioned problems, they also have two very negative Glassdoor reviews. Yes there is no way to check if they are legit, so there is reason to suspect both are fake, but both could be real as well. One could be fake, one could be real. We don't know.
The point is, Vire is just trying to post this as an informative thread. There is simply no reason to call him out by saying " Yoo this feels like someone really wants the gaming press to check Glassdoor!! "
That's all I was saying.
Replying to hyperbole with hyperbole is not the best way to have an argument.
DKC3 is not "straight garbo." It is a fantastic game that suffers from "more of the same" syndrome.
These are old and have been discussed before. They could be evidence of development trouble at the studio, but given that they're unverified and we have no other info about the studio's whereabouts they should be treated as simple rumors. Maybe someday Press Sneak Fuck or another journalist will get a tip about what's actually going on and we can talk about concrete info. Even during their most productive days making the Prime games, the company had a horrible problem with crunch and troubled design leadership.
Retro seems a lot less ambitious these days than the Metroid Prime days.
Also Metroid Prime 4 is been doing, apparently, internally or even being outsourced by another studio (probably Bamco)
Together with that there's the rumour that Retro were developing their own project together with another big for Nintendo, but that project was cancelled (at least I remember reading somewhere),
Even Rare looked a lot more healthy when the buyout happened. The state of the studio doesn't make any sense.
Well, maybe it's in the plans of Nintendo to defunct the studio. It will look better than not giving any information for more than five years and suddenly start to answer memes on twitter.
Also Metroid Prime 4 is been doing, apparently, internally or even being outsourced by another studio (probably Bamco)
Together with that there's the rumour that Retro were developing their own project together with another big for Nintendo, but that project was cancelled (at least I remember reading somewhere),
Even Rare looked a lot more healthy when the buyout happened. The state of the studio doesn't make any sense.
Well, maybe it's in the plans of Nintendo to defunct the studio. It will look better than not giving any information for more than five years and suddenly start to answer memes on twitter.
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