TheMetroidfranchise has experienced a major resurgence in recent years. After years of dormancy, Nintendo finally released the seemingly abandoned fifth entry in the mainline series,Metroid Dread, to tremendous success almost two years ago. As if that wasn’t enough, Nintendo also shadow-droppedthe highly sought-afterMetroid Prime Remasteredin February, giving gamers the opportunity to enjoy the classic GameCube title with enhanced graphics and controls. Amidst this resurgence, however, Nintendo has neglected aMetroidproject many have waited on for over five years,Metroid Prime 4.
Announced at E3 2017,Metroid Prime 4has been a proverbial white whale forMetroidfans for a long time now. The fourth entry in the popular series was initially in development with Bandai Namco Studios, until Nintendo became unhappy with how the project was progressing, scrapped everything, and passedMetroid Prime 4on to Retro Studios. That was a little more than four years ago now, and since then Nintendo has been silent on how the game is progressing. With how much attention the company has shown to other aspects ofMetroid, it seems like Nintendo is purposefully neglectingPrime 4at this point.
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Metroid Prime 4’s Silence is Telling Alongside Metroid’s Other Successes
Metroidwas viewed as one of the most neglected Nintendo franchises for the longest time, as one of the last mainline entries in the series was the frequently malignedMetroid: Other M. Nintendo hardly acknowledgedMetroidafter this release, aside fromSamus Aran’s appearances in theSuper Smash Bros.series, but that’s since changed in a big way. Ever since the release ofMetroid Dread, the series has been riding high among Nintendo’s other franchises. While it’s not exactly at the same level asThe Legend of ZeldaorSuper Mario, it’s not wasting away with the likes ofF-Zeroanymore.
All of this success also comes off of relatively short-notice releases.Metroid Dreadwas announced in the summer of 2021 and released that fall. Despite this,Dreadbecame one of the best-sellingMetroidgames in history, bringing the series back into the spotlight. The success ofDreadled many to believe that news onMetroid Prime 4would be coming soon, but after over a year, Nintendo has remained silent. Then the surprise release ofMetroid Dread Remasteredrekindled hopes thatMetroid Prime 4news would be right around the corner, but Nintendo hasn’t so much as teased an update for the highly anticipated sequel.
One would think that Nintendo would ride the hot hand with all of itsMetroidsuccess, but it doesn’t seem keen to even acknowledgeMetroid Prime 4’s existence anymore. It begs the question ofhow smoothly development forPrime 4has gone under Retro Studios, but considering the developer made all previous entries, it’s hard to imagine the game is progressing that poorly. Most fans would take just a piece of concept art at this point, it would stand to reason that Retro at least has that prepared by now, but both the developer and Nintendo have been radio silent on the whole project.
TheMetroid Primetrilogy is widely viewed as one of the best to come from Nintendo, making the silence onMetroid Prime 4all the more disheartening. Hopes are still high that2023 will provide some kind ofPrime 4update, especially considering the franchise’s recent success, but it’s just as likely that another year passes without any news. It’s hard to imagine that Nintendo simply doesn’t care about the project anymore, but the way it has treatedMetroid Prime 4certainly makes it difficult not to think that. With any luck, fans will getMetroid Prime 4news before they get news on the successor to the Nintendo Switch.
Metroid Prime 4is currently in development.
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