Studio head of Panic Button, Adam Creighton, has revealed that he has stepped down from his role at the company and is "moving on to something new".
Panic Button has become something of a fan-favourite name amongst Nintendo Switch owners as of late, largely thanks to its porting efforts with games like DOOM, Wolfenstein, Warframe, and more. Creighton shared the news in a tweet yesterday:
"No details yet, but excited to share I'm moving on to something new!
I'm proud of my contribution to Panic Button's success, grateful to the team that helped make that happen, and looking forward to this next phase of working with great games and people in the industry."
As you can see for yourself, Creighton's new job hasn't been detailed just yet; his LinkedIn page notes that he started somewhere new this month but the important bits are hidden with temporary 'TBA' markers.
Interestingly, though, folks on Reddit have started to speculate that he could well end up at Retro Studios, makers of Metroid Prime 4. While that might initially seem like quite the leap, it's worth noting that both Retro and Panic Button are located in the same city - Austin, Texas - and Retro recently posted a whole new wave of job listings.
With the success Creighton has enjoyed working with Switch, wouldn't it make sense for him to be snapped up by an adored subsidiary of Nintendo? Hmm.
We'll keep an eye out for any more announcements in the coming weeks.
[source twitter.com, via reddit.com]
Comments 19
Wish him the best. It would be neat if he ended up at retro just to see how he'll contribute to the company
Nintendo should buy Panic Button
Probably moved to EA, home of incredible talent and a clear vision for gaming.
@jufonuk
Or maybe they'll let Microsoft buy them instead, as they did with Rare.
Oh no! Who will now manage all those brilliant Nintendo Switch ports of triple A games?
Would be cool if he did end up at Retro Studios, though, and the closeness of the two locations is indeed rather typical. And as we all know, there's no such thing as coincidence...
Seems like a stretch to think he’s working at Retro just because it’s based in the same city, but I wouldn’t hate that.
@Baart You joke, but it wouldn’t shock me. How many talented developers have been suckered by the siren call of EA’s deep pockets and false promises?
@Baart EA clearly has talent, but I'd argue about the "clear vision for gaming"
@jufonuk agreed!
@Tibob hell no man panic button should remain their own studio.
wouldn’t surprise me if Retro picked him up. Panic Button clearly knows how to port a shooter to the Switch and get it to run incredibly well. Sounds like Metroid Prime 4, no?
We all wish him good luck, the best games the Switch has, have come thanks to Panic Button.
@jufonuk They were so important to the newfound third party awareness of the system/company. They’re masters of porting and optimizing for the Switch. So I totally agree a closer partnership is in order.
"Interestingly, though, folks on Reddit have started to speculate that he could well end up at Retro Studios, makers of Metroid Prime 4."
Just some journalistic advice, I wouldn't consider "folks on Reddit" as anything credible to make such an assumption — same city, or not.
@jufonuk Makes sense at first but when you think about it, not really.
Panic Button are currently being paid by devs to bring their games to Switch and doing an incredible job of it, without Nintendo needing to pay a penny.
Devs know Switch is popular, they know Panic Button are experts are porting to Switch, so they call them up, allowing games to come to Switch when the original studio doesn't have the resources or manpower to do it themselves, bringing us games we could potentially never have otherwise.
If Nintendo bought Panic Button, they'd have to either keep hiring it out to third party devs in the same way, which would likely change very little about the studios output while increasing Nintendo's risk factor, or use them as their own 2nd party porting studio, which would involve spending even more money to get the rights to the games they wanted to port.
Not to mention some of those third party IP holders might have been capable and willing to do the ports themselves, but would rather let Nintendo take care of it, so now they are paying through the nose for games they would have gotten anyway.
The likelihood if Nintendo bought Panic Button is that they would just started porting Wii U and Wii games to switch before long lmao.
Which could be great but, not better than constantly pumping out high quality third party Switch ports without Nintendo needing to do a thing or spend a penny, like they are now.
probably went to dance ballet or something
Hoping for Retro, yes. But remember there are other gaming companies in Austin like Zenimax Media, Bethesda, Daybreak, etc.
Nintendo Life Detective Pikachu Number 2: He may work for Retro because they are in the same city. And a whole article was made under this assumption!! Nobody to be asked, nobody to confirm. We just write down whatever it comes to our minds and we publish an article.
Such sad news. I hope this doesn’t affect the great things that Panic Button has been doing. I am crossing my fingers for continued Panic Button greatness on Switch!!!
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...