With the release of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze this week, Official Nintendo Magazine took a moment to sit down with Retro CEO Michael Kelbaugh and Nintendo SPD producer Kensuke Tanabe in order to discuss the upcoming Donkey Kong game, as well as the future of Retro Studios itself. The entire interview is pretty interesting, so be sure and check that out here. However, one notable piece of information is that Retro could potentially work with Shigeru Miyamoto on their next project.

We’ve known for a while now that Miyamoto holds the team at Retro in high regards, as back at E3 he praised the team and stated he didn’t see why they couldn’t handle multiple projects at once. Kensuke Tanabe further elaborated on that, stating that Retro is considered part of the Nintendo family and could potentially work with Miyamoto on one of his next projects.

“We consider Retro as part of [the] Nintendo family and a very capable game development studio. As a Nintendo development team, they will keep working with not only SPD, but also with the development teams in Kyoto. They might even work on a title that Miyamoto-san leads directly in the future. However, the SPD team assigned to Retro is working together with them as a single team and I hope it will continue this way. (On Mario Kart 7, for example, SPD staff were involved as co-ordinators.) I am saying this because a very interesting and stimulating chemical reaction occurs when the two parties from different languages and cultures are united under Nintendo’s game production philosophy, and that chemical reaction results in extraordinary ideas.”

It’s nice to see Nintendo acknowledge that Retro Studios has been an integral part of their success. Here’s to looking forward to a title from Retro with Miyamoto at the helm. Perhaps another Metroid title?