This is everything we know about Metroid Prime 4

In June of 2017, Nintendo aired a special E3 Spotlight presentation, revealing an extensive lineup of upcoming content for the Nintendo Switch. While most of the games have been released by now, one game that was announced, Metroid Prime 4, is still yet to be released as of February 2024. So what is really going on with Metroid Prime 4?

Official Metroid Prime 4 announcements

Even though the announcement of a new Metroid Prime was very exciting news for Metroid fans, the announcement showed nothing more than a title reveal.

See the official announcement of the game below:

However, In January 2019, Nintendo released a development update on Metroid Prime 4, and when Nintendo releases updates on upcoming games, it is usually not good news.

In the development update, it was mentioned that the progress of the game’s development had not met the expectations of the executives. As a result, the development team previously working on the project has been replaced by Retro Studio, the development studio responsible for the previous games in the series.

Ever since this development update, Nintendo has held Metroid Prime 4 very close to their chests, not revealing any further information about the game.

Unofficial information about Metroid Prime 4

However, there has been some unofficial information about the game in the form of leaks, rumors, speculations, job listings, and more.

Metroid Prime 4 concept art

In 2022, Retro Studios updated its banner on Twitter with what seems to be the very first concept art for Metroid Prime 4. The image does not reveal much, but it seems to feature Samus standing in some sort of a corridor.

The original development team

According to unofficial reports, the development of Metroid Prime 4 started under Bandai Namco before the project was redirected to Retro Studios. According to Nintendo themselves, the reason why the project was handed over to Retro Studios was because the game was not living up to Nintendo’s expectations with its previous team.

Retro Studios is still hiring for the project

It was observed in June 2023 that Retro Studios was still recruiting new members for Metroid Prime 4. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean the game is far from completion. It’s common in game development to hire new people during the later stages of a project, so the game could still be released in the near future despite new hires.

The chance of an open world Metroid Prime

In August 2023, unconfirmed reports started coming out about Metroid Prime 4 having massive open areas to be explored but not fully being an open-world game.

It’s worth noting that the Metroid series is traditionally known to feature small, interconnected, explorable environments, but whether these environments will constitute a fully open world in the upcoming installment remains to be seen.

Current generation or next generation?

In the original announcement made in 2017, it was stated that Metroid Prime 4 would be released on Nintendo Switch. However, due to the project being rebooted in early 2019, the game most likely lost about two years of development time. As we approach the end of Switch’s life cycle, Metroid Prime 4 will probably be a title for the upcoming Nintendo console, which is referred to as Switch 2. Although Metroid Prime may not be as strong of a console-selling series as something like the Zelda series, it is still a powerful series of games that can help boost sales of a new generation console.

Nintendo has a history of releasing games across multiple consoles, particularly during console transitions. This suggests that there’s a chance that Metroid Prime 4 could be released on both the Nintendo Switch and its successor.

More info about Metroid Prime 4 will be posted here as we learn more about the game.