Metroid Prime 4 Production Is Cancelled As Production Begins Fresh At Retro

by Dylan Blight

Nintendo has revealed they have cancelled production of the current version of Metroid Prime 4 but will be rebooting production as they pass it over to the original team that did the trilogy, Retro Studios. This information comes via a video posted to all Nintendo Youtube accounts late last night.

In the video, Shinya Takahashi explains the reasoning behind cancelling the work on Metroid Prime 4:

“Ever since the announcement, we have not been able to give you an update, as a result of the continuing development — although this is very regrettable — 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.”

He goes on to explain the quality level that Nintendo strives for in the development phase and that Metroid 4 Prime was simply not meeting that level.

“We have determined that the current development status of the game is very challenger, and we have had to make a difficult decision as a development team.”

The biggest surprise, of course, comes with the announcement that they aren’t simply scrapping the project to start again themselves, but rather are handing the project off to Retro Studios who developed the original Metroid Prime Trilogy.

This news does open another question now as to what Retro Studios has been working on since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and if we’ll see whatever that may be released before production of Metroid Prime 4 begins.

Metroid fans are sure to take this bitter-sweet news as it is — a little disappointing to have to wait longer, but surely worth it to get a great game instead of a bad one. Nintendo’s transparency on this production is also to be applauded and something I’m sure the industry as a whole could use from other developers.

Check out the full video from Nintendo below and let us know what you think about the production being cancelled and handed back over to Retro Studios.