Here's everything you need to know about Metroid Prime 4, all rumors, its speculated release date and news.
Ever since the release of Metroid Prime Remastered for the Nintendo Switch at the beginning of this year, fans have been eagerly anticipating the release of Metroid Prime 4. After its announcement at E3 in 2017 updates have been sparse, but recently a new twitter banner made fans hopeful again.
After their “first look” in 2017, presenting the logo for the future Metroid Prime series addition, fans were left in the dark for quite some time. Two years later, in 2019, Shinya Takahashi, Senior Managing Executive Officer at Nintendo, released an official statement regarding the development of Metroid Prime 4.
The video, once again, did not show any gameplay, but instead told us that Nintendo would be working together with Retro Studios, the development studio of the original Metroid Prime series. According to Takahashi, the game's quality at that time could not live up to Nintendo's standards. Because of that, they would start the game development from scratch.
All this time, fans have been speculating about what we can expect from the gameplay and graphics, and some of them are pretty likely. Seeing as the Metroid Prime series is well known for its 3D-graphics and first-person point of view, fans can probably expect to see this type of gameplay in the upcoming release, as well.
Metroid Prime 4: Is The Game Still Being Produced?
Those of you who were looking up a Metroid Prime 4 release will probably find different websites telling you that you can pre-order the game, just to tell you that the release date is still TBA.
As of now, since neither Retro Studio nor Nintendo have provided any updates about their newest Metroid Prime game on their websites, there is a ton of speculation going on.
Like many other companies, Retro Studios was impacted by the pandemic. This could have potentially slowed down the production of Metroid Prime 4 for quite some time, although there are no official statements to back up this claim.
On Reddit, fans have been discussing whether Metroid Prime 4 is stuck in “Development Hell”.
One Reddit user made a bold claim in r/metroid that Nintendo is holding back the release of Metroid Prime 4 on purpose, stating:
"It's not in development hell, Nintendo is saving it to be a launch title for their next console as well as on the Switch."
This thought might not be too farfetched. If you consider that Metroid Prime 4 is a direct continuation of the series, it would totally make sense for Retro Studios to first remaster the previous games. Especially, if you consider how well received the remaster of the first game was. By releasing remastered versions of the previous games first, fans could relive the nostalgia all over again before playing the newest game. Depending on how much time they want to spend on those remasters, the release of Metroid Prime 4 could be pushed back further.
Although there haven't been any official updates since 2019, fans can be assured that the production is still ongoing. Retro Studio's official Twitter account shows that the studio has been actively hiring new members for their development team over the last few years.
Metroid Prime 4: Is There An Official Release Date?
After years of waiting for updates, 2023 seems to be a promising year for Metroid Prime fans! Even though Nintendo may not have released any official statements about the game in over four years, the UK Nintendo Store makes us believe Metroid Prime 4 could be coming soon. There, you can “register your interest” in the game and get updated about more information regarding pre-orders and product news.
This could be a sign, that the game is almost ready for release. Why else would Nintendo decide to offer an official newsletter after almost 5 years?
Another thing that sparks hope for fans: Retro Studio's new Twitter banner. If you have a sharp eye, you may have already spotted this change. The new concept art is a good sign for development and lets us hope that 2023 will be the year we finally get an actual release date!