American Development company Retro Studios has announced that it has terminated production of its GameCube RPG action title Raven Blade, and has laid off most the title’s production staff.
Retro Studios has had a much publicised hard time of late, under pressure to complete Metroid in time, a license it won over Nintendo stalwarts Rare, and needing considerable cash injections from Nintendo.
It has been widely rumoured for some time that the first party developer was in the grips of some kind of crisis but it was difficult to see why. Under the wing of Nintendo, on the verge of what might prove to be the Japanese colossus’ finest hour, and gifted with one of the most prestigious GameCube titles, seems to be an ideal position for any relatively new games developer.
For some reason, Retro has been unable to keep things together and one title had to go. We estimate it took all of two seconds for Nintendo to decide which game to cancel.