Senior Managing Executive Officer Shinya Takahashi from Nintendo released a short YouTube video explaining that there’s a reason that we haven’t heard much about Metroid Prime 4 since it was announced. In short, Nintendo has been disappointed with development, and they are now rebooting the project from the beginning with a new studio. A choice quote:
“Ever since the announcement, we have not been able to give you an update, but as a result of the continuing development since that time – although this is very regrettable – we must let you know that the current development progress has not reached the standard we seek in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series.”
The game was being developed by Bandai Namco, but the announcement says that current producer Kensuke Tanabe will now be working with the studio that made the original series such a hit, Retro Studios. Though now this raises new questions about Retro itself, which no longer has many of the key people who made Prime in the first place, and supposedly the studio was working on a different title that wasn’t this for years, so it’s unclear what that was or what happens to it now.
This is not a simple shift. Production of Metroid Prime 4 is literally being restarted from the beginning, which Takahashi acknowledges will significantly delay a game that many already assumed was still a few years out, as we’ve seen practically nothing from it since it was announced.
