The Metroid franchise 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-dropped the highly sought-after Metroid Prime Remastered in February, giving gamers the opportunity to enjoy the classic GameCube title with enhanced graphics and controls. Amidst this resurgence, however, Nintendo has neglected a Metroid project many have waited on for over five years, Metroid Prime 4.
Announced at E3 2017, Metroid Prime 4 has been a proverbial white whale for Metroid fans 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 passed Metroid Prime 4 on 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 of Metroid, it seems like Nintendo is purposefully neglecting Prime 4 at this point.
Metroid Prime 4's Silence is Telling Alongside Metroid's Other Successes
Metroid was 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 maligned Metroid: Other M. Nintendo hardly acknowledged Metroid after this release, aside from Samus Aran's appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series, but that's since changed in a big way. Ever since the release of Metroid Dread, the series has been riding high among Nintendo's other franchises. While it's not exactly at the same level as The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario, it's not wasting away with the likes of F-Zero anymore.
All of this success also comes off of relatively short-notice releases. Metroid Dread was announced in the summer of 2021 and released that fall. Despite this, Dread became one of the best-selling Metroid games in history, bringing the series back into the spotlight. The success of Dread led many to believe that news on Metroid Prime 4 would be coming soon, but after over a year, Nintendo has remained silent. Then the surprise release of Metroid Dread Remastered rekindled hopes that Metroid Prime 4 news 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 its Metroid success, but it doesn't seem keen to even acknowledge Metroid Prime 4's existence anymore. It begs the question of how smoothly development for Prime 4 has 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.
The Metroid Prime trilogy is widely viewed as one of the best to come from Nintendo, making the silence on Metroid Prime 4 all the more disheartening. Hopes are still high that 2023 will provide some kind of Prime 4 update, 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 treated Metroid Prime 4 certainly makes it difficult not to think that. With any luck, fans will get Metroid Prime 4 news before they get news on the successor to the Nintendo Switch.
Metroid Prime 4 is currently in development.