April 25^th, 2008 (9:14am) - Retro Studios, the game development studio behind the critically and commercially successful Metroid Prime franchise, is reported to have lost three of its key staff members. Lead designer Mark Pacini, engineer Jack Mathews, and art director Todd Keller have reportedly been "escorted" out of the company.

Unfortunately, no specific details have been revealed as to why these departures have occurred but it’s not the first time Retro has experienced issues of the sort. It’s rumored that Pacini, Mathews and Keller are planning on starting a new game studio but, again, it’s nothing more than a rumor at this point.

Retro Studios will continue to act as a premier Nintendo game development studio as its has produced one of the greatest game series in Nintendo’s history, their most recent title being Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Wii. The company is a wholly-owned first party developer and is rumored to have at least one new "hardcore" game in the works for the Wii.