Nintendo updates fans on Metroid Prime 4, development is being restarted

One of Nintendo's big surprises at E3 two years ago was the announcement of Metroid Prime 4. We knew at the time that development was in the early stages as the trailer was a simple logo reveal. Unfortunately since then, work on the game hasn't gone particularly smoothly, so Nintendo is rebooting the project- this time with Retro studios at the helm.

Back in 2017 and 2018, there were rumours that Retro Studios was working on a Star Fox racing game. As a result, Bandai Namco was presumably tapped to help out on Metroid Prime 4. In an announcement on Friday, Nintendo set a new bar for transparency with fans, stating that “current development progress has not reached the standards” the company seeks.

Nintendo's senior managing executive officer then went on to explain that Nintendo has “decided to reexamine the development structure itself and change it”. So going forward, Metroid Prime 4 will now be headed up by producer, Kensuke Tanabe and Retro Studios- the same developer behind the original Metroid Prime trilogy.

This does mean that development has to essentially be restarted from scratch, but ultimately, Metroid fans should end up with a better game. In the meantime, it does look like we'll be seeing a Metroid Prime trilogy remaster hitting Switch while we wait for the sequel.

KitGuru Says: A lot of fans were expecting Metroid Prime 4 to be Nintendo's big holiday release for 2019, so getting this announcement out of the way now was a good move. Its not often that we see a major publisher offer this kind of transparency. Still, I do hope that this doesn't sour Nintendo's thoughts on third-party collaborations. Metroid Prime 4 didn't go to plan with Bandai Namco, but Ubisoft's Mario + Rabbids and Starlink/Star Fox collaborations were both excellent. 

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