How about a nice bombshell for your Friday morning.
Metroid Prime 4 is headed back to the drawing board.
Nintendo's senior managing Executive Officer Shinya Takahashi has made the announcement on Nintendo's video channels that due to difficulties with the project, Metroid Prime 4 has reset development. Series producer Kensuke Tanabe will be working with Retro Studios, who developed prior Metroid Prime titles in a previous incarnation, to create the game.
Previous Nintendo release lists have listed the game as a "TBA" release; there is no new timeline for Prime 4's release.
One has to wonder what Retro Studios was working on before this and whether it got delayed or cancelled.
Critically Metroid is one of the most respected franchises in gaming and it's annoying that Nintendo doesn't treat it with the same respect it does for Zelda, which has a comparable critical reputation but is also a big commercial hit with mainstream recognition.
Nintendo doesn't announce things way ahead of time unless they're desperate, which they certainly aren't right now. To assume there aren't other games coming later this year just because they aren't announced is silly. Metroid was never going to be a game that could carry a holiday anyway, so they had better have had other things in the pipeline for the second half of 2019.
I look forward to yet more mediocre Wii U games getting Switch ports because of this, since Nintendo apparently still hasn't learned how to make Switch games yet.
I look forward to yet more mediocre Wii U games getting Switch ports because of this, since Nintendo apparently still hasn't learned how to make Switch games yet.
Yeah, they've only announced five original games for 2019 to go along with all one of those Wii U ports so far. They really need to get it together.
Metroid Prime 4 was also due in 2019. That sure worked out well.
Critically Metroid is one of the most respected franchises in gaming and it's annoying that Nintendo doesn't treat it with the same respect it does for Zelda, which has a comparable critical reputation but is also a big commercial hit with mainstream recognition.
Couldn't you argue though that outright cancelling this project ~2 years in, scrapping everything, and putting one of their most respected studios on it is a real sign of Nintendo treating the series with respect?
Also, I'm really curious what the cancelled Metroid Prime 4 was like. A tweet I read alleges that the trouble rose from Nintendo trying a multi-studio, multi-national development method(s) that is used by Ubi-Soft and Rockstar.
Critically Metroid is one of the most respected franchises in gaming and it's annoying that Nintendo doesn't treat it with the same respect it does for Zelda, which has a comparable critical reputation but is also a big commercial hit with mainstream recognition.
Couldn't you argue though that outright cancelling this project ~2 years in, scrapping everything, and putting one of their most respected studios on it is a real sign of Nintendo treating the series with respect?
What they're doing now is respectful but the situation in the first place isn't. Nintendo would never out source a mainline Mario, Zelda or Pokémon game to some Namco b-team. That's the sort of thing they do for franchises that aren't enough of a priority for them to assign their internal teams to. In general Nintendo seems to regard Metroid as that weird series that the American market appears to like but the Japanese one doesn't.
there will probably be some snarky takes about how Other M was released if Nintendo has such high standards for the franchise,
does that mean...it was actually worse than Other M? Is that even possible?
You are so perceptive Khushrenada.
Yeah considering that Retro hasn't been able to come out with anything for 6 years now this is hardly what I'd call an improvement.
Critically Metroid is one of the most respected franchises in gaming and it's annoying that Nintendo doesn't treat it with the same respect it does for Zelda, which has a comparable critical reputation but is also a big commercial hit with mainstream recognition.
Couldn't you argue though that outright cancelling this project ~2 years in, scrapping everything, and putting one of their most respected studios on it is a real sign of Nintendo treating the series with respect?
What they're doing now is respectful but the situation in the first place isn't. Nintendo would never out source a mainline Mario, Zelda or Pokémon game to some Namco b-team. That's the sort of thing they do for franchises that aren't enough of a priority for them to assign their internal teams to. In general Nintendo seems to regard Metroid as that weird series that the American market appears to like but the Japanese one doesn't.
It's basically the same thing they've done with a lot of the Smash Bros. games, so I wouldn't assume that it was a case of them not regarding the series as important.
Of course the good thing about all this is I imagine the rumored Prime Trilogy HD is guaranteed to come out now. If a game like this is at least 2-3 years away, they'll want something to hold the Metroid Prime fans over and an HD remaster of that Trilogy would certainly make the wait easier.
Now that MP4 won't be shown until E3 2021, the release could be delayed all the way to 2020 or beyond if they still want to use it as marketing for MP4. I see no other reason why they would be delaying the release/announcement otherwise :-\
As far as developing assets go. I don't see the point of starting over completely from scratch. There should be a giant asset base to use from the previous developments. The only thing Retro really should be doing is writing code, and creating new animations at this point.
What they're doing now is respectful but the situation in the first place isn't. Nintendo would never out source a mainline Mario, Zelda or Pokémon game to some Namco b-team. That's the sort of thing they do for franchises that aren't enough of a priority for them to assign their internal teams to. In general Nintendo seems to regard Metroid as that weird series that the American market appears to like but the Japanese one doesn't.
