Texan developer Retro Studios has got quite a lot on its plate these days. Not only does it have the mammoth task of bringing Nintendo's beloved Metroid franchise into the next generation, it is also responsible for development of a brand new RPG, named Raven Blade. The title was shown in non-playable form this past May at E3, and the general sentiment was that it looked promising.

Unfortunately, it seems that Retro's eyes were bigger than its stomach. The company announced on Friday that Raven Blade has been canceled, resulting in the layoff of a large part of the development staff. All the aesthetic team members were let go, while the programmers have been reassigned to the Metroid Prime project. This is not too surprising, considering the fact that development of Metroid Prime has ostensibly not gone as smoothly as Nintendo desired. The game has a rabid following in America, and thus gets top priority. Nintendo's new console will likely have better RPG support than the N64, but it seems that fans are going to have to wait a bit longer for something to materialize.