Nintendo fans starved for any updates on the development of Metroid Prime 4 news were in for quite a shock when Nintendo itself had to break the bad news: the game is not coming along smoothly.
Delays happen often in the video game community, so such news shouldn't come as much of a surprise. However, it's clear from Nintendo's wording that this isn't just a delay. The company said outright that it's not satisfied with how the development for the upcoming Switch title is going, and as a result, it has decided to restart development completely.
In a shocking move, Nintendo has essentially scrapped its entire progress and is starting over from scratch.
Metroid Prime 4 Development Scrapped
"We must let you know that the current development progress has not reached the standards we seek in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series," explained Shinya Takahashi, senior managing executive officer at Nintendo, in a video. He added that the current development status of the game is "very challenged."
Metroid Prime 4 will now be handled by a different studio entirely: Retro. That said, it was never made clear from the get-go exactly which developer was in charge of the title when it was unveiled at Nintendo's E3 2017 presentation.
Retro Studios was the original developer of the first Metroid Prime games, although it should be noted that many of the original staff responsible for those titles left Retro to form Armature Studios in 2008.
Starting From Scratch
"We did not make this decision lightly," said Takahashi, then added that the change will cause development to restart completely, which in turn means the game will be delayed from Nintendo's original plan. How long it'll be delayed is difficult to determine. The game, even before this news was announced, didn't have a release schedule.
The announcement contradicts what Nintendo of America's president said last year at E3. Asked how Metroid Prime 4 was doing, Reggie Fils-Aimé said that development was "progressing well." That's clearly no longer the case given the bombshell announcement Nintendo just made.
Takahashi offers a silver lining for fans of the series. In the video, he said that the sequel will "stand shoulder to shoulder" with the previous Metroid Prime games when it's finally released.
Thoughts on Metroid Prime 4 development getting restarted? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
