solstice.jpg We're not entirely sure how long it's been up, but the front page of seminal game musician Tim Follin's website has a note from him officially announcing his retirement from video game music. He explains: "The games industry has offered me a slow and irregular trickle of work over the last ten years or so, that has caused me a great deal of distress and illness... It is thus... that I bid it farewell, as I embark on a new and, God willing, financially stable career in television advertising."

Though Follin is glad to be going, devotees of his amazing music output, such as the guys over at The Follin Drome fansite, are going to be pretty upset. A recent Follin interview at Gamasutra revealed his frustration with the game industry, despite his amazing early NES score to Solstice and his more recent classic soundtracks such as Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, commenting: "It’s getting to the point now where I’d rather be doing anything other than writing music – anything that pays as much for the same amount of work, that is!" Darn. Follin's last completed project will be Lemmings for PSP, then, and we're sad, too.