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Metroid Prime 4: What in tarnation is going on? It hasn't even been a blimp on the radar since that dummy title screen at E3 2017

GigaBowser

The bear of bad news
Gotta be the worst example of, "We got so little show we gotta pad up our E3 with dummy title screens of games that are barely on the drawing board" I have ever seen.

The longer we go without hearing about this game, the more I think it's in dev hell and we probably won't see it until mid next gen. I'm also losing hope at how quality it will be if you catch my drift.

Heck, I bet we'll see a sequel to Dread before we see Metroid Prime 4.

Looking back at this 2017 video is 🤡 at this point.

This was SIX years ago!

 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
It WAS in dev hell, they literally announced that the project was restarted in January 2019. So 4 years is about right for them to actually show us something substantial this year.

Give it time, they gave it back to Retro in the end as they always should have done.
 

Saiyan-Rox

Member
We won't hear anything about this until E3 season.

Any direct before then will be Zelda being the main big game.
 

Robb

Gold Member
From what I understood they scrapped everything they had when they gave it to RETRO, so I guess it’s about 4 years in at this point.

Hopefully we’ll get a trailer or some kind of news about it this year.
 

Shut0wen

Member
Pretty sure development has been reset at least twice already, last news we got was that the director of bf5 was on board to help make the games map bigger
 
Considering how outdated their tech is, how oldschool their game worlds are, their output is despite being good sorta pityful. With such tech they should have pumped out 2 or 3 games of their hit franchises each, and at least one of the lesser loved ones, and maybe return to something like Eternal Darkness or try again a shooter- with a hired third party. Their games look okay for a handheld, sure, but barely better than upscaled PS360 games and single studios pumped out 3 or more games in that era with more experimentation required and finding the current design philosophies.
Nintendo has way too few teams and a work ethic like Polyphony. Acceptable for one team within a studio family, but if the entire company runs so slow without width it's certainly not enough for me.
Prime (and 3D Marios) are the games I miss from them, so I hardly missed much over a span of many years, and it is certainly no tragedy to ignore their entire gen.

But other people seem to like, really love, their output and so they feel zero pressure to do more, invest their earnings into growth.
Pity no one wants to copy it either. I'd say something like Dead Space, Bioshock or Lost Planet would have worked with the Prime formula.
 

jigglet

Banned
Remember when we all collectively said: wait, Namco has a Singapore branch?

I can picture Namco just sweeping this project to their E grade dev team, Nintendo findinf out and saying oh wtf, we takin this back.
 
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Kabelly

Member
It's coming soon...
sad-samus-57b78d8752107.png
 
It restarted development from scratch in January 2019. Moved over to Retro, who started pre-production at that time. Nintendo's actually been pretty transparent about that. So the E3 2017 timeline we've all known since January 2019 is no longer important. Given that, since it's just turned to the 4 year mark last month on actual development, it may still be a ways out yet. I would anticipate 2024, possibly a launch title alongside new hardware. I think they are waiting to show anything or discuss the game again until they have a firm release date and no possibility of a delay, given how long they've made us wait. Which is definitely the way to go.
 
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Elysion

Banned
As others have mentioned, the game was taken from Namco and given to Retro in late 2018, who restarted development. But I’m not sure how reassuring that really is, considering that Retro themselves haven’t released a new game in almost a decade, and most of their original staff is probably long gone by now. There were probably a bunch of projects of theirs that got cancelled during all these years, which doesn’t exactly bode well.

And I also wonder what kind of game Prime 4 will be. I can’t imagine that it‘s just like MP 1-3 but with better graphics, because I doubt that they‘d need 5 years for a game like that. It‘s probably gonna be a gameplay reboot, similar to how BotW changed the Zelda formula. Maybe it will be open world? Or 3rd person? Or they gave Samus crazy physics-based abilities, like a gravity beam, or the ability to shoot portals, or a beam that shrinks/enlarges objects, something like that. But is the Retro of the present still capable of something like that?
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Judging by not so many new about hires and stuff.... it's waaaaaays off from release and maybe even full production.
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
They only showed the title card because Metroid fanbase is toxic as fuck. I can't even think about the manbaby meltdown there would have been if they only showed Samus Returns alone.

Tropical Freeze reaction was embarrassing enough to watch.
It's toxic to be upset because there hasn't been a Metroid Prime game in over 10 years and a Metroid main series entry since Fusion in the early 2000s (I am of course talking before they announced and released Dread in 2021)?
 

Doom85

Member
It's toxic to be upset because there hasn't been a Metroid Prime game in over 10 years and a Metroid main series entry since Fusion in the early 2000s (I am of course talking before they announced and released Dread in 2021)?

Andy was referring to 2013/2014 when Tropical Freeze was announced and released. Despite having gotten 3 Metroid Prime games plus other titles like Fusion since the end of the SNES, whereas there had been only one Donkey Kong Country game released since the end of the SNES (plus DK64), some Metroid fans couldn’t be chill and acted as if their franchise was superior and should always be given priority over DKC.

Even if one wouldn’t consider it toxic, it was undeniably obnoxious.

Also, Other M came out way after Fusion, and even as someone who doesn’t like it, it’s obviously a main series entry.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
Nintendo.... Seriously what the fuck is your problem? It's cute at first that you think your shit doesn't stink but that routine gets old fast.

I thought the switch was gonna be the generation where they got it together with their IP. Get a great metroid game and guess what? You didn't even make it.

Plus before this you stole the idea for a samus returns game from a modder you sued.
 
Gotta be the worst example of, "We got so little show we gotta pad up our E3 with dummy title screens of games that are barely on the drawing board" I have ever seen.

The longer we go without hearing about this game, the more I think it's in dev hell and we probably won't see it until mid next gen. I'm also losing hope at how quality it will be if you catch my drift.

Heck, I bet we'll see a sequel to Dread before we see Metroid Prime 4.

Looking back at this 2017 video is 🤡 at this point.

This was SIX years ago!


It's going to be a Switch 2 game, Nintendo is already slowing down their Switch 1 output. Next 3D Mario and Metroid will be on Switch 2 for sure.
 

Gambit2483

Member
At this point, they're probably developing it to Switch 2, and they will remain silent until the new console is announced.

Yea, I highly doubt this is still a Switch game. The game has probably become bigger and more ambitious since it's first reveal and just couldn't run on Switch.

The Switch's lack of hardware power is most likely what also caused the Bayo3's development issues. I wouldn't be surprised if they had to lower the games scope just to get it running on Switch.
 

SaintALia

Member
Considering how outdated their tech is, how oldschool their game worlds are, their output is despite being good sorta pityful. With such tech they should have pumped out 2 or 3 games of their hit franchises each, and at least one of the lesser loved ones, and maybe return to something like Eternal Darkness or try again a shooter- with a hired third party. Their games look okay for a handheld, sure, but barely better than upscaled PS360 games and single studios pumped out 3 or more games in that era with more experimentation required and finding the current design philosophies.
Nintendo has way too few teams and a work ethic like Polyphony. Acceptable for one team within a studio family, but if the entire company runs so slow without width it's certainly not enough for me.
Prime (and 3D Marios) are the games I miss from them, so I hardly missed much over a span of many years, and it is certainly no tragedy to ignore their entire gen.

But other people seem to like, really love, their output and so they feel zero pressure to do more, invest their earnings into growth.
Pity no one wants to copy it either. I'd say something like Dead Space, Bioshock or Lost Planet would have worked with the Prime formula.
They have joint ownership of Eternal Darkness and the other owner tried to do a Kickstarter, TWICE, and failed.

This is what's so bizarre about what people expect from Nintendo. Like they seriously want them to drop money on these dead in the water franchises that will somehow miraculously stop being a flop and sell gangbusters if they just get a new fresh coat of paint, and if they don't, well obviously that's Nintendo's doing it justice or or the public's fault for not recognising greatness.

"Nintendo has way too few teams"

Probably because Nintendo isn't as big as people seem to think it is, and they would rather allocate resources to games/franchises that can actually sell.

But it is curious though, Nintendo do actually create new franchises or at least try to reanimate those dead franchises every once in a while, but they mostly get ignored. People complained for years that Nintendo was ignoring F-Zero, but people conveniently ignored the declining sales of that series, and Nintendo even tried reviving it by asking a Western studio, which declined. But the fact that arcade racers beyond indie games are pretty much dead, and that F-Zero's biggest rival(Wipeout) has been shelved and it's studio shuttered doesn't seem to be a factor to people. Nintendo should just throw money at it anyway.


Anyway, in regards to Metroid Prime: the thing got rebooted and could probably be a cross platform game or exclusive for their next gen system. I doubt it's canceled, but Nintendo does do this stuff from time to time, barely show a game, then it disappears for a few years with complete silence, then boom, blowout and details and release.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
I'm kind of hoping it launches alongside and taking advantage of new hardware at this point. It's going to be so limited by this 8 year old underclocked SoC. Make it a Switch Pro/2 showcase title.
 
They have joint ownership of Eternal Darkness and the other owner tried to do a Kickstarter, TWICE, and failed.

This is what's so bizarre about what people expect from Nintendo. Like they seriously want them to drop money on these dead in the water franchises
"something like". ;-)
Whatever is up to Nintendo quality and promises success. I know the titles I would want to see again, if those are viable is a different story. Wave Race, Metroid Prime, Mario 64/Galaxy, some Agent game again, probably somone else as Bond, eg Bourne, Hunt or make something entirely up like Joana Dark, but, like with every other dev, I am more curious to see new IPs each gen. eg I would very much hope that Naugthy Dog isn't stuck with TloU or Uncharted, and that SSM will finally be able to bring something else than their usual Kratos game, even though the last two where somewhat different. I'd also would not want Prime 4 to be just a visually upgraded cotinuation but introduce some new shit. iirc Splatoon was the only new IP Nintendo did with the wii-u. And the rather mediocre Arms with switch. Which is imho not really much even if Splatoon is probably a great title.
Wii+ DS and now Switch again bring loads of money, invest that in growth so you don't have to announce sort of vaporware.
"Nintendo has way too few teams"

Probably because Nintendo isn't as big as people seem to think it is, and they would rather allocate resources to games/franchises that can actually sell.
Which is exactly what "too few teams" means. eh? They are just too small for having years and decades of success. eg Sony only having Sony Japan (=Nintendo EAD) Polyphony (=Platinum) and Retro (insert one of the Sony western studios) wouldn't be enough for Sony either.
 

Neff

Member
Metroid fanbase is toxic as fuck

Honestly this so hard. They're one of the most entitled, bitter, hostile fanbases around. And I say this as a Metroid fan.

I can picture Namco just sweeping this project to their E grade dev team, Nintendo findinf out and saying oh wtf, we takin this back.

Apparently they settled on the method of building it piece-by-piece with Namco and other contracted studios and it just wasn't coming together in the way they'd hoped. Retro offered to do it and Nintendo liked their pitch so it was given the go-ahead.
 

Maestr0

Member
Nintendo said, we clean and we restart from the beginning, which means they're paying a close attention to it and will reveal it when they want to push the button. I'm patient because I don't want it to fall into the category of game rushed for nothing, better have it done excellent or have nothing than fall into the shit category
 

Astral Dog

Member
Nintendo has been clear about this project, they fully restarted development because of quality concerns, their initial goal was(for some reason) make Metroid Prime 4 with a new studio and that didn't worked out.

Also i suppose bringing the Metroid Prime formula to the HD generation is not easy task, specially if they want to have a big impact for future sequels, Metroid Prime 4 will most likely be cross generation as well
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
They have joint ownership of Eternal Darkness and the other owner tried to do a Kickstarter, TWICE, and failed.

This is what's so bizarre about what people expect from Nintendo. Like they seriously want them to drop money on these dead in the water franchises that will somehow miraculously stop being a flop and sell gangbusters if they just get a new fresh coat of paint, and if they don't, well obviously that's Nintendo's doing it justice or or the public's fault for not recognising greatness.

"Nintendo has way too few teams"

Probably because Nintendo isn't as big as people seem to think it is, and they would rather allocate resources to games/franchises that can actually sell.

But it is curious though, Nintendo do actually create new franchises or at least try to reanimate those dead franchises every once in a while, but they mostly get ignored. People complained for years that Nintendo was ignoring F-Zero, but people conveniently ignored the declining sales of that series, and Nintendo even tried reviving it by asking a Western studio, which declined. But the fact that arcade racers beyond indie games are pretty much dead, and that F-Zero's biggest rival(Wipeout) has been shelved and it's studio shuttered doesn't seem to be a factor to people. Nintendo should just throw money at it anyway.


Anyway, in regards to Metroid Prime: the thing got rebooted and could probably be a cross platform game or exclusive for their next gen system. I doubt it's canceled, but Nintendo does do this stuff from time to time, barely show a game, then it disappears for a few years with complete silence, then boom, blowout and details and release.
Excellent post. As far as announcing things early, that was Yamauchi Nintendo. He would have games being talked about from the moment they were experiments. Miyamoto talked about Mario 128 at investors meetings a handful of times.I believe that happened out of pressure, because sales were declining. They don't have to do that anymore, because sales are quite good.
 

MAtgS

Member
Gotta be the worst example of, "We got so little show we gotta pad up our E3 with dummy title screens of games that are barely on the drawing board" I have ever seen.

The longer we go without hearing about this game, the more I think it's in dev hell and we probably won't see it until mid next gen. I'm also losing hope at how quality it will be if you catch my drift.

Heck, I bet we'll see a sequel to Dread before we see Metroid Prime 4.

Looking back at this 2017 video is 🤡 at this point.

This was SIX years ago!



Did you completely missed this?
 

SaintALia

Member
"something like". ;-)
Whatever is up to Nintendo quality and promises success. I know the titles I would want to see again, if those are viable is a different story. Wave Race, Metroid Prime, Mario 64/Galaxy, some Agent game again, probably somone else as Bond, eg Bourne, Hunt or make something entirely up like Joana Dark, but, like with every other dev, I am more curious to see new IPs each gen. eg I would very much hope that Naugthy Dog isn't stuck with TloU or Uncharted, and that SSM will finally be able to bring something else than their usual Kratos game, even though the last two where somewhat different. I'd also would not want Prime 4 to be just a visually upgraded cotinuation but introduce some new shit. iirc Splatoon was the only new IP Nintendo did with the wii-u. And the rather mediocre Arms with switch. Which is imho not really much even if Splatoon is probably a great title.
Wii+ DS and now Switch again bring loads of money, invest that in growth so you don't have to announce sort of vaporware.

Which is exactly what "too few teams" means. eh? They are just too small for having years and decades of success. eg Sony only having Sony Japan (=Nintendo EAD) Polyphony (=Platinum) and Retro (insert one of the Sony western studios) wouldn't be enough for Sony either.
Well, first off, Sony is a MUCH larger company than Nintendo, so is Microsoft.

"Splatoon was the only new IP Nintendo did with the wii-u."

It wasn't though. If you ignore Nintendoland and 'saved' games like Devil's Third and W101, you had Pokken, Captain Toad and Tokyo Mirage. But the Wii U was a massive flop and didn't see a lot of games in the first place. You had more original IP for the 3DS, like Ever Oasis, Tomadachi Life, the massive flop that was Codename S.T.E.A.M. and Steel Diver.

But that ties into my point of people simply forgetting about the new IP anyway, and focusing on what they remember through nostalgia and the big franchises Nintendo already has.

Wii had a bunch of new IP that I rarely see people asking for a sequel to as well, I've never seen anyone asking for a sequel to that cutting up giants game, but that was a Japanese only release. Endless OCean, Another R, The Last Story, Disaster, Pandora's Tower, a host of Japanese only exclusives and stuff like eshop games like that cute puzzle game with the Kirby like protagonist, Dillon and Sakura Samurai doesn't seem to even register for people(well, The Last Story did, but Xenoblade was the only franchise that survived Operation Rainfall), it's mostly their big names and nostalgia fuel. So why even bother if they don't actually sell.

They still do them, but they are at least smart enough to prioritise. Devs available for second party development have mostly died off or been bought out or consolidated, so I'm not sure how much collaboration Nintendo can do for that shooter you want. They have Retro, but Retro ain't Rare, and I'm not sure if they can handle a shooter. Some of the staff I think come from some shooter games, but I don't remember them pitching much shooters to begin with. Wave Race team is, I dunno.
 

Woopah

Member
Given what happened last time, Nintnedo won't talk about Prime 4 again until they can show gameplay. I expect to see something in a Direct this year though.

Considering how outdated their tech is, how oldschool their game worlds are, their output is despite being good sorta pityful. With such tech they should have pumped out 2 or 3 games of their hit franchises each, and at least one of the lesser loved ones, and maybe return to something like Eternal Darkness or try again a shooter- with a hired third party. Their games look okay for a handheld, sure, but barely better than upscaled PS360 games and single studios pumped out 3 or more games in that era with more experimentation required and finding the current design philosophies.
Nintendo has way too few teams and a work ethic like Polyphony. Acceptable for one team within a studio family, but if the entire company runs so slow without width it's certainly not enough for me.
Prime (and 3D Marios) are the games I miss from them, so I hardly missed much over a span of many years, and it is certainly no tragedy to ignore their entire gen.

But other people seem to like, really love, their output and so they feel zero pressure to do more, invest their earnings into growth.
Pity no one wants to copy it either. I'd say something like Dead Space, Bioshock or Lost Planet would have worked with the Prime formula.
Nintendo are investing their earnings into growth and they are one of the most prolific major publishers in the industry (they publish 9-12 games each year on average).

I think its less their overall amount of output, and more that they aren't neccesarily working on as many of the types of games as you would like. Having said that. they do publish a lot of smaller games and franchsies, not just the big ones.
I wonder which developer Nintendo pulled MP4 from originally.
Job listings showed Bandai Namco was involved, which make sense as they partner with Nintnedo on a lot of games.
 

Ailike

Member
Remember when posters were saying Dread would sell like 10mil copies? Sidebar, I know, but Metroid just doesn't match what the fans think it should, so no blimps should be expected.
 
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