Metroid Prime 4 development starts over, switches developer to Retro Studios.

[minibois]

This (moving) image had all Metroid fans around the world in excitement, all the way back in 2017. 

 

This news isn't the hottest newest news, but has not been posted here and I did want to write something about it.

TL;DR: Metroid Prime 4 development will start over, under Retro Studios, instead of the previously unannounced studio. There is no release date, there was none before either.

 

The news:

Metroid Prime 4 for the Nintendo Switch had been announced at E3 in (June) 2017, with nothing more than a teaser trailer. At the time, they showed that they were working on the game and we didn't have anything else other than the logo.

Now, a year and a half later from that teaser and two days ago as of posting this thread, Nintendo has (unexpectedly) released a video titled "Development update on Metroid Prime 4 for Nintendo Switch" in which Shinya Takahashi, General Manager of the Entertainment Planning & Development Division at Nintendo, talked about a big change in the development of this game. 

 

In the video, Takahashi said the current development was not up to the standards of what they are looking for in a sequel in the Metroid Prime series. 

Because of the unhappiness with the progress, Nintendo has decided to have the producer of this game, Kensuke Tanabe, work together with the American videogame developer; Retro Studios.

Tanabe being a producer on many Nintendo games, including Metroid Prime 1 through 3² and Retro Studios being the developer of the previous Metroid Games, as well as the developer behind the Donkey Kong Country Returns series of games⁶.

Together, these two parties will start the development from scratch.

 

In this development update video, Nintendo unfortunately did not give a new release date on this project and even stated

Quote

it will be a long road until the next time we will be able to update you on the development progress and development time will be extensive

Quote from 2:39 in the first linked video.

 

It is not fully clear who the original developer for this project was, but from this video we can hear it was not originally Retro Studios. At first some sources claimed it would be a new team creating it, while later sources pointed at Bandai Namco being involved³. The producer would have always been Tanabe⁵.

Rumors in the past speculated early 2019 as the release date⁴.

 

My opinion

As a huge Nintendo fan and someone looking forward to this title, I am very sad to see it get delayed. But I am also somewhat glad. Glad they are willing to delay this game, even restart development to make it the sequel the Metroid Series deserves. Not release something that wouldn't be worthy of the title, not release something that would tarnish the brand name (*hint* *hint* you know what game series I am talking about)

The last time we saw something from the Metroid Prime series was the release (and rerelease) of the three current (console) Metroid Prime games (known as Metroid Prime Trilogy) in 2009 on the Wii and 2015 for the Wii U (the latter digital only). The last proper new Metroid Prime game was the third one in 2007 (let's just all not talk about Federation Force..).

Over a decade later, fans of the series are eager to see a new entry in the series, but seeing the responses everyone seems to be on the same page: we want this sequel to be done right.

 

The sources:

Development update (January 25th 2019):

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensuke_Tanabe

3: https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/25/18197166/metroid-prime-4-delay-reboot-retro-studios-nintendo-switch (Posted January 25th 2019)

4: https://www.techradar.com/news/metroid-prime-4 (June 12th 2018, a year after the teaser)

5: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/25-01-2019-metroid-prime-4-release-date-developer-story-teaser-nintendo-switch-everything-we-know (January 25th 2019)

6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_Studios

 

[TigerHawk]

Well I'm glad its in the hands of a proven studio. Prime 1-3 were great, though I especially like the first game the most.

 

Perhaps the unannounced studio that had been working on it before was the Sonic Team or something and they made a complete hash of it?

[Master Disaster]

It was Shigeru Miyamoto who said...

[Fnige]

8 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

It was Shigeru Miyamoto who said...

Someone who lives by their quotes...

 

I haven't seen someone like that anywhere

[Fnige]

8 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

It was Shigeru Miyamoto who said...

Someone who lives by their quotes...

 

I haven't seen someone like that anywhere

[williamcll]

So it's breath of the wild all over again.

[TacoSenpai]

18 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

It was Shigeru Miyamoto who said...

I think someone made a thread about this already.  Though I do agree with this sentiment my one concern is that most of the people who worked on the Prime Trilogy at Retro are no longer there.  I love Retro alot they have always done top quality stuff but starting over development from square one with new people will without a doubt be a challenge.  Though i do think that Nintendo is taking Metroid very seriously and knows they can't muck this up especially after a long hiatus after Other M and the Federation Forces debacle.