News about Metroid Prime 4 has become exceedingly rare in the past two years. The highly anticipated title hasn't been acknowledged by Nintendo in over 800 days, so in the meantime, many dedicated fans are turning to other kinds of sources for any new information. This includes hiring sites such as LinkedIn, where some folks have noticed that Retro Studios has brought on a new lighting artist with a storied portfolio.
Metroid Prime 4 was officially delayed back in January 2019, when internal troubles caused development to restart entirely. The project shifted from the unknown original team over to Retro Studios, who created the original Metroid Prime trilogy as well as the recent two Donkey Kong Country installments. While this is already a highly talented team, new hires are always bound to enter these projects throughout their development, including a lighting artist that once worked for DreamWorks Animation.
As indicated by his recently updated LinkedIn account, Chad Orr is now a Senior Lighting Artist at Retro Studios. He's worked on several high-profile projects over the years, including Disney's feature films Moana and Zootopia, Sony's critically-acclaimed 2018 title God of War, and most recently, DreamWorks' hit animated films How to Train Your Dragon 3 and The Croods: A New Age. Orr's track record is quite impressive, between both gaming and film, so his involvement should be something to look forward to.
Fans scouring hiring sites for new information is nothing new, especially not in reference to Metroid Prime 4 specifically. Just last December, Retro Studios posted a job listing for a Boss/AI designer, among other minor developments. Studios are always searching for new talent, so these snippets of information don't necessarily indicate anything new about the game's potential quality or release date, but it can still be comforting to know that development is continuing as expected.
On that note, fans are wondering when the next piece of Metroid Prime 4 news could possibly turn up. Considering the reboot of development happened over two years ago, many are hoping that the game will resurface at E3 2021, possibly releasing sometime in 2022 or alongside a theoretical Nintendo Switch revision. While this is certainly possible, it's best to keep one's expectations in check when it comes to the announcements of major projects such as this. Game development is a tricky task, so the team at Retro Studios deserves all the time they need to make this highly-anticipated sequel as good as it can be.
Metroid Prime 4 is coming to Nintendo Switch at an unknown date.
Source: ShineSparkers