Metroid Prime 4 Development Scrapped; Retro Studios Now In Charge
Today Nintendo updated us on Metroid Prime 4‘s development and unfortunately it’s not good news. The game has not come together the way they had hoped and they made the difficult decision to stop development on the game and start from scratch with the original developers of the series, Retro Studios. This means the game is essentially just entering development and will not be ready for a long period of time.
No time table was given, but given what Nintendo is saying, we would not expect Metroid Prime 4 to be available for a good two to three years based on what a typical AAA game development schedule tends to take. This is a bitter pill to swallow for all of those who were anticipating this future game.
This also begs the question why they didn’t utilize Retro Studios from the beginning? Were they busy working on something else? Obviously something went awry in the planning and development of this game. We do have to give Nintendo credit for taking a hard look at a project and realizing that it’s just not up to standard. Let’s hope the increased wait is worth it in the long run!
We also can’t help but be disappointed that they didn’t announce Metroid Prime Trilogy or an HD remake of Metroid: Samus Returns or something of that nature to soften the blow. This would have been a nice overture to fans of the series.
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
