Nintendo has wrangled in Tecmo's Team Ninja to develop upcoming Wii title Metroid: Other M. Team Ninja is best known for its work on action title Ninja Gaiden and bouncy fighter Dead or Alive.
Company president Reggie Fils-Aime dishes about why the company signed the developers to do Metroid, "We could've done a fine job on our own. But, we saw the Team Ninja group as a way of adding a little extra special sauce, if you will, to make it a really compelling experience." Just like Team Ninja has made its own games compelling.
So far, the industry reaction to the Team Ninja announcement seems to be good. "One of the pieces of feedback I've heard is that as we made that announcement," says Fils-Aime, "that there were a lot of development teams and publishers who started to say to themselves, 'Wow, Nintendo is open to these types of partnerships. Let's think of other ideas to bring forward.' Which I find exciting."
Then those same publishers say to themselves, "Wow, I wish I had know that Nintendo has had these kind of partnerships for a long time." Game Boy Advance Zelda games from Capcom, anyone?
Reggie Interview [GameSpot]