Remember when top talent left Retro Studios? Well, those three guys were Mark Pacini, Todd Keller and Jack Mathews...and they've now gone on to make Armature Studios. They have signed a publishing deal with EA, and will be working on games for all platforms. The team is obviously excited about making games for any platform they want.

"EA approached us with this really interesting business model of creating a small studio that is only comprised of industry veterans. The goal is to create new IP with a very, very small team and to produce a game without having to grow that team. From my stand point, I've never worked on any other console. I've always made games for Nintendo. I'm reinvigorated. I'm really excited about what other opportunities are out there. How can we use Xbox Live? How can we use the power of the PS3? I think it really opens it up. I'm not saying it was by any means restrictive working for Nintendo. We had this palette to work on, the Wii and the DS, but now we have everything. That's just really, really exciting."- Mark Pacini

Of course, the team cannot work on Metroid any longer due to this new deal...but that doesn't mean that one day they wouldn't like to go back to the series.

"Personally, I would love to work on another Metroid game. I have been in love with Metroid for years. We had a chance to recreate a game that was created way back when. That was awesome." - Todd Keller

So, now we still have Retro Studios, minus some talent. There's Armature Studios, which will be making games for all platforms. We'll just have to see how the chips fall, and if the losses at Retro will make the developer lose a bit of its luster.

Full interview here (thanks TexanGamer!)