Steve Barcia

Stephen "Steve" Barcia is a video game programmer, producer and entrepreneur. He founded Simtex Studios Inc. in 1988, which released several turn-based strategy games for the PC, including the first two Master of Orion games. Following Simtex's closing in 1997, Barcia succeeded Jeff Spangenberg as the president of Retro Studios after a takeover by Nintendo of America.http://www.n-sider.com/personnelview.php?personnelid=1292
Barcia has since joined EA Canada in Vancouver, and oversees the production of the Def Jam games.http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=267&page=8
==Metroid Prime==
Barcia went on to become the executive producer of Metroid Prime, the quality of which was largely credited to Barcia's involvement. The cancelled Retro game Raven Blade was said to be Barcia's "baby"http://www.n-sider.com/personnelview.php?personnelid=1292; this game was dropped due to its lagging in development and to free up resources for Prime. Barcia had no further involvement with the Prime series and following an owner's meeting in April 2003, was replaced by Michael Kelbaugh.
According to Shigeru Miyamoto: "We've had countless numbers of meetings and conferences. Right from the beginning, Steve [Barcia] at Retro had suggested numbering the e-mails so that we could know which e-mails we responded to and when. The number that is on the last batch of e-mails is a very very large number." [laughs]http://ca.ign.com/articles/2004/08/06/the-art-of-prime?page=2
==Management style==
Former employees of Retro Studios have described Barcia as having "mandated a back-breaking work ethic", with working conditions declining under his tenure, including unpaid and excessive overtime, and pay disparities. Despite this, they stated that he was intelligent and genuinely cares about the end product. One anonymous employee said that they worked 48 hours straight on Prime without sleeping, and overtime of at least 12 hours a day for nine to ten months. A mass exodus of employees was planned until Barcia was replaced. Under Michael Kelbaugh, the working environment and stability at Retro improved.
==External links==
*Barcia on LinkedIn
*Barcia on MobyGames
==References==
Category:Retro Studios employees
Category:Producers