Metroid Prime 4 Delayed for Not Meeting Expectations

[Thomas_JCG]

In a video posted today (25/01), Shinya Takahashi, Senior Managing Executive Officer at Nintendo revealed that production of the much anticipated game will "restart from the beginning" after the team considered it below the standards the franchise deserved. Kensuke Tanabe, the game producer for Metroid Prime 4 as well the previous entries, will also work with Retro Studios (the US developer of the original Metroid Prime) in the attempt to improve the game.

The full announcement can be seen in the video below:

[Cosmocalypse]

I am OK with this, although I wish developers/publishers would wait to reveal games until they have a release or at least a targeted release date.

I really wish they'd give us a port of the original Prime trilogy to hold us over, though.

[M1st3r_Luna]

That would be highly considerate of them to do that.

[Global Gravity]

Agreed 100%. If MPT for Switch wasn't in the pipe before, time to fast track it.

[Inzoreno]

Well, I never thought that Prime 4 would actually release this year, given that up until this point the ONLY thing we had from the game was the logo. However, I can't say I would have expected this to happen, though I think most people would have wanted it this way from the very start. Gotta wonder what this means for the mystery project Retro has been working on all this time.

[bunnypunisher]

I'm much happier with them delaying this if there is a quality control issue. Market departments will always get ahead of game development and that can't be helped to a certain extent. It's good to see a publisher pull it back and be transparent about it, rather than either quietly let it die on the vine, or worse, go ahead and publish it anyway and try to recuperate development costs with a substandard product. I feel if we encouraged and supported this behavior more as a community, it would at least give the development teams (who often operate in a bubble) insight into how this, while internally can be perceived as a bad thing, is long term better for the company, and for the success of what they're actually trying to achieve.

[Merlin]

I'm not surprised. We had only a logo in 2017. I doubted the game would go from logo to finished in 2 years. I still have a lot of hype for animal crossing...Give me a break, I can like softie games too! Q_Q

This is the Nintendo polish. When they know a game matters they will make sure it is ready. I think the only time this wasn't the case was with Mario Tennis Aces because they didn't anticipate how low key cult classic the gameboy color/advance titles were to people and underestimated the quality needed to match Camelot's work on the title and the RPG elements.

How long did we wait for Breath of the Wild? I'm sure they will do a good job.

[RetroRex]

I was looking forward to seeing soon, too. Oh well.

[AlexKidd]

Good! I rather have them work on it for years and make it perfect compared to EA/Activision pooping out products with a production cycle of a year and it's an unfinished game, absolutely shit or both.

[Global Gravity]

I'm disappointed, but ultimately okay with this and give Nintendo (some) props for pulling the plug on an inferior product and advising us as to why it was done. A lot of other companies would have pushed it to release anyway, regardless of quality. Shit, MOST companies would have done that two years into development. I was concerned from the get that Retro wasn't involved in the process of MP4 at all, so seeing that they are taking the project over is somewhat relieving. Hope they can at least re-use some assets and metadata from the past two years to get a jump on things.

SO release date when... probably 2021 at the earliest, now?

[Hovad]

Im quite happy to see what Retro can do with it. I guess we see it next year.

[Alerik]

Considering I bought the Nintendo Switch specifically because Metroid Prime 4 was announced, I'm quite upset that I have to wait even longer now for it to be released. That being said, I respect them for being transparent and honest about the situation and not releasing it just to release it. I actually have higher hopes and expectations now for the game since they seem to be focused on quality and not just our money. I do hope they change their minds on porting the trilogy to the Switch to help with the long delay. Otherwise there's a lot of fantastic games to play while I wait for it to be released.

My one concern is, just how long of a wait will it be? If they're starting from scratch, are we looking at 3-4 years? Shorter? Longer? If longer, will Nintendo already have a next gen console and if so, will it be released on that system instead. I honestly don't know how long it takes to make a game like Metroid Prime or Nintendos plan for future consoles. Any insight would be much appreciated.

[Thomas_JCG]

They said in a interview that they aren't thinking about a successor for the Switch just yet:
https://nintendoeverything.com/ninte...nsidered-more/

[Alerik]

Thomas_JCG, thanks for the info and link.

[Merlin]

Even if it did come out for a new console(which it won't, the switch life cycle will probably be a solid 10 years with a Switch+ console), it would probably do what many games do and release on both the old and new system. Speaking of that, as a Zelda fan, how many years did they push back the release date for Breath of the Wild? It feels like they pushed it back 3 times and in total it was like an extra 5 years. Its common for Nintendo. They push back games that will be blockbuster titles to keep a good reputation. They want you coming back to Metroid 4 years and years after release as we do with their other big games.

[isturbo1984]

I would like to know what made them think they could do it in the first place.

[Baron Baldric]

Nintendo lied to cover the lack of games in Switch, now they have to make a game at the level of Nier Automata and that will take 4 years, it will not come out for this generation, if they continue like this it may be a mobile game.

[Pantsu Hunter]

Never was a huge Mtroid fan so I dont really care, but all I can say is that every single publisher should learn from nintendo.

[Jokerthefoolio]

Not the original metroid. Retro only made the metroid prime games

[Thomas_JCG]

This is true, I'll update the headline.

[Merlin]

Nothing new for Nintendo to push back big games. What is odd however is that Retro Studios WASN'T part of the dev team in the first place or even brought on for creative consultation. So this is the best for the fans of the series...

I still think the smart move would be to have a remaster done. Grezzo did amazing things for remastering both N64 Zelda games and Starfox to the 3DS with QoL changes and updated graphics. Get the Prime trilogy onto Switch as a bundle with a special edition, get people hyped and keep them busy until 4 comes out. Get people(like myself) who never played them back on the Wii to get into the games.

I don't expect that to happen, but it would be a savvy business move and I genuinely would enjoy playing the OG Prime games since I sold my Wii after the console was dead from lack of good games.