Ever since its teaser announcement at E3 2017, there has been zero information or details about Metroid Prime 4, the long-awaited follow-up to the Prime trilogy of games. That's hardly surprising, though, as it was confirmed at the beginning of 2019 that development was being restarted and the game was being handed to Retro Studios, which was responsible for the original trilogy.
Over a year later and there is still no official information about the game itself. Usually, a complete lack of info would leave fans worried. Just look at Bayonetta 3, which some fans are anxious about despite continued insistence that development on the game is going fine.
In Metroid Prime 4's case, though, while there has been no game news, Retro has been going on something of a hiring spree throughout the year, with its latest recruit being one Marisa Palumbo, according to VGC.
Palumbo is a seasoned veteran of the gaming industry, having spent nearly nine years at Rockstar, where she worked as a producer for major titles like Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto 5, before moving to Activision Blizzard to help work on Overwatch.
Her new role is lead producer at Retro and she joins quite a pedigree of other hires. Back in September, Retro brought in developer Dylan Jobe, whose credits include Doom and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Jon Marcella, who helped make boss arenas and designed puzzles for God of War. All in all, it sounds as if Metroid Prime 4 is in very capable hands and the silence surrounding it shouldn't be assumed to mean that its development is troubled.
By the same token, though, there's nothing to suggest that development is going perfectly either and it's more likely that the game is still a long ways off from even getting a gameplay trailer, let alone an actual release.
There have been supposed leaks of a Nintendo Switch port of the Metroid Prime Trilogy, a compilation of the three Prime games that originally released on the Wii and was discontinued in 2010, though it was re-released digitally on the Wii U in 2015.
This could be the perfect game to tide fans over, as well as an opportunity to make it more accessible but, so far, there has been no official word from Nintendo if it's actually real. One theory is that Nintendo is waiting to release it a bit closer to Metroid Prime 4's release to drum excitement and improve sales, but that could be a long wait.
Speaking of rumors and leaks, it's still believed that an upgraded version of the Switch called the Switch Pro is being made, which will be able to support 4K resolution.
Metroid Prime 4 is currently in development for the Nintendo Switch.
Source: VGC