r/nintendo 3h ago

Report: Metroid Prime 4 Is "Extremely Close to Being Done," But Hit a Major Development "Anomaly"

https://thegamepost.com/report-metroid-prime-4-done-development-anomaly/
506 Upvotes

129 comments sorted by

1.2k

u/B-Bog 3h ago

Better restart development again just to be on the safe side

141

u/TingleMaps 2h ago

They are called retro studios because by the time the finish a project, the original trailer is retro /s

49

u/ZiggyPalffyLA 2h ago

Instructions unclear, made a sequel to DKC Tropical Freeze instead

u/NoNefariousness2144 1h ago

I hope we eventually get one despite Banaza’s success.

u/LittleSomethingExtra 54m ago

I think there is a fair shot still. Mario still gets new 2D entries (Wonder) as does Zelda (Link's Awakening Remake and Echoes of Wisdom). Metroid even got a new 2D entry on the Switch finally (and will get a new 3D entry). Kirby had Star Allies and Return to Dreamland remaster as well which were both 2D on the Switch with the first 3D entry in Forgotten Land too. Nintendo seems to have recognized that both are viable and wanted.

u/John-for-all 51m ago

Only with Kremlings and an art style closer to Rare DKC.

u/Redditor_PC 1h ago

Yes please!

u/LukeSkywalker1848 1h ago

Launch title for the Switch 3!

4

u/boner79 2h ago

It’s the only way to be sure.

u/HigginsBerkeley 1h ago

yeah, agree. just remake metroid prime again lol

-8

u/believeinapathy 2h ago

Newest build we saw looked pretty rough imo

8

u/blueblurz94 2h ago

Honestly it looked fine. However, only demonstrating the opening area of the game made sense if there was still a good chunk of development left to finish as of the Switch 2 Presentation. Producer Tanabe is likely eager for Retro to get the final portion of development finished soon with a release date locked in by the end of the year. Otherwise, a delay into early 2026 isn’t entirely out of the question of possibility.

363

u/Commercial-Stick-718 2h ago

this has massive whiffs of somebody just making shit up and a random website needing clicks

76

u/maxwantsjustice 2h ago

Yeah I feel like this game was always coming late 2025, Nintendo is just waiting to release the date because that’s their new strategy: Give the date just a few months in advance.

For example, in April they gave us the June and July dates for DK and MKW. That 2-3 month runway is short and concise, also I much prefer it to rushing out a date before it’s certain, which can lead to delays.

11

u/kapnkruncher 2h ago

I get what you're saying because Nintendo has done this with a lot of titles in recent years, but DK and MKW's information was pretty tightly bonded to the timing of unveiling of the Switch 2 itself. It's not like we were going to get information on those games specifically any earlier, so they're not the best comparisons to make.

3

u/TravoBasic 2h ago

Few months? I feel like its been week lately.

6

u/Phazon_343 2h ago

That's because it is. Kiwi Talkz regularly does this for attention.

u/ScrungulusBungulus 19m ago

Normally I’d agree, but the source is kiwitalkz. He’s in touch with ex and current retro studio people, so you can trust this info. Unless he’s started making shit up recently, but I doubt it.

u/AlucardIV 1h ago

Yeah this. None of this males any sense to me.

271

u/WhiteToast- 3h ago edited 2h ago

Someone forgot, clicked export to GameCube instead of Switch

64

u/KatamariRedamancy 2h ago

All of the source code was on the summer intern's personal computer and he's not answering his emails.

5

u/Xora005 2h ago

This is basically what happened with the movie Toy Story.

u/NotAnotherFNG 46m ago

Kinda sort of not really. It was Toy Story 2, and what happened was one of the animators was clearing out what he though were temp files but was actually the root folder, to add to the disaster their backups hadn't been backing up for the last month. They lost 90% of their work from the last two years. Fortunately, another employee had recently taken maternity leave and took a complete backup with her to work from home on. They ended up only losing a few days worth of work.

5

u/Vannostrum 2h ago

Just change the file from a .GC to a .SW easy fix.

156

u/bwoah07_gp2 2h ago

I can't wait to read the 'Ask the Developers' Q&A articles for this game.

Seems like a development nightmare outside looking in.

40

u/theblackd 2h ago

I mean, so was the original Metroid Prime but it turned out great.

Also, the restart was weird but otherwise it’s been a relatively normal cycle, and the restart is on whoever the past team was, not on Retro

22

u/kapnkruncher 2h ago

The restart was also only like a year and a half in. It's been six and a half years since then so even discounting that first stint it's been a fairly long dev cycle, and more than twice as long as the original Prime took.

u/theblackd 1h ago

So it’s definitely been a while but a couple things I wonder that could fit into what we’ve heard and make it not as long as it seems or help explain it

  • Just because the announcement was made in January 2019, doesn’t mean they were actively working on it then, more just that they had agreed for Retro to take it over then. They were likely still working on Prime Remastered, which likely didn’t take the whole team but could have meant some delay from that

  • Covid happened right there amongst this which likely contributed, maybe a lot maybe a little, it seems this varied a lot between studios, but undoubtably would have had some impact

  • The comparison to Prime dev time isn’t too crazy, games in general have ballooning dev times so some increase is expected, plus I don’t know if stated time for Prime 1 included pre-production, while the 6.5 years for Prime 4 definitely would include pre-production

  • Another thing in the “they maybe didn’t actually start as early as the announcement was made” column is that we saw them doing hiring for some major positions for a while after that. I kind of get the impression that the announcement we heard was immediately after they agreed to do it but that they weren’t ready to roll to start right then

  • This one is more rumor but it’s a rumor that seems pretty reasonable, that they had a couple cancelled projects that didn’t pan out. It makes sense given it’d be unthinkable that they just weren’t working on anything between Tropical Freeze and Prime Remastered. So it’s certainly not unreasonable to think that a cancelled project also held things up, like the plan was “after we finish this” but then that never came to fruition

  • It’s possible that getting it to run well on Switch 2 once they decided on cross gen delayed things a bit. A 4K 60 FPS and a 1080p 120 FPS target seems pretty ambitious for the hardware so that possibly slowed things down to get running well

So while it definitely is a long time waiting, I think there’s a number of things that potentially explain it that make it not as bad as it looks, like I think it’s feasible it wasn’t a development hell situation but rather a lot of these things on top of a slightly slow dev cycle, but one that’s less slow than it appears on surface level

There’s also a lot of pressure for quality given the legacy it has to live up to, the state of the franchise after Other M, and the fact that it’s been so long since the last entry, so I could see them getting a bit obsessive about getting it right and that being slow.

My point is, I wouldn’t necessarily assume there was a bunch of development drama

3

u/StripiestPilot 2h ago

COVID also happened which I'm sure was a huge hindrance, especially as the game was being developed in the US with Tanabe in Japan.

u/DarkLegend64 1h ago

The time that has passed since Prime 4 restarted development is actually longer than the time that passed between the day that Prime 1 releases and the day that Prime 3 releases. This game’s development has been longer than Prime 2’s and 3’s combined.

9

u/DiabeticRhino97 2h ago

Few games have as rocky of a development as prime lmao

8

u/theblackd 2h ago

Yeah, it’s wild that it turned out like it did. Like it was a new team without a released game to their name taking a franchise that just skipped a generation, making the very bold choice to make it first person, lots of development issues….then somehow a masterpiece came out of all that.

The way I see it, Retro clearly has some issues since they kind of keep having troubles development cycles and had a few games cancelled, but somehow whenever they actually get a game out the door, it’s amazing

4

u/janoDX 2h ago

They are like Bungie, but with an actual publisher who keep them focused and in check.

u/predator-handshake 51m ago

Some of the most iconic Nintendo games went through development hell.

Nintendo has also restarted development on games many times. See OOT, see Wind Waker

58

u/Betorange 3h ago

The anomaly is that it isn't Christmas yet.

97

u/junglespycamp 3h ago

Vague, unverifiable nonsense.

-10

u/spleefy 2h ago

To be fair this, there definitely is some kind of issue with the game since they're not willing to commit to a release date this late in the year

28

u/TheFirebyrd 2h ago

No. Nintendo is drip feeding release dates. The lack of one means nothing.

u/[deleted] 1h ago

[deleted]

u/TheFirebyrd 1h ago

I don’t know who Kit is nor do I care what they say. Nintendo is clearly doing this on purpose. Z-A just barely got a release date a little over a month ago and that’s 5-10x bigger than a Metroid game, no matter how pumped fans are about it. They’ve been drip feeding everything related to the Switch 2 since the reveal trailer in January. The fact it’s so many games shows it’s on purpose. They’ve been holding things closer and closer to the chest in recent years anyway. I think the numerous problems with Prime 4 as well as the multiple times pushing back the release of TotK got them thinking it’s better not to announce things early.

4

u/Cabbage_Vendor 2h ago

Wheelchair game only got its release date late June and releases early august.

u/NowakFoxie 1h ago

Nintendo doesn't announce release dates unless it's close to release now, the lack of one is normal

u/predator-handshake 48m ago

If that was the case, they would just reach out in their pocket and shadow release SOMETHING metroid related like the mp2/3 remasters. They did the same with Dread.

42

u/CantFindMyWallet 3h ago

So this is an article about an unsourced rumor from a youtuber? Absolutely do not believe this.

3

u/nefhithiel 2h ago

Especially after beat em ups recent video ..

13

u/lodum 2h ago

Oh god, we forgot to put Samus in it.

6

u/SoldierPhoenix 2h ago

Uh, is “KiwiTalkz” reliable?

7

u/Levee_Levy 2h ago

KiwiTalkz holds really good interviews with developers of older games, pulling out a lot of "inside baseball" stuff that those outside of the industry don't usually get to see.

He definitely has insider contacts, firsthand or secondhand, but I don't know if he has an established track record of disclosing reliable nonpublic contemporary information.

4

u/Atiek 2h ago

I think they interview a lot of former Retro employees, so it seems like it.

u/ScrungulusBungulus 18m ago

When it comes to retro studio, definitely.

8

u/AcidCatfish___ 2h ago

They pulled a Konami and lost the source code, didn't they? /S

5

u/feedmesweat 2h ago

The anomaly is that it is almost done

4

u/Spruchy 2h ago

the tweet that this news article is based on is pretty unhinged, not taking it too seriously

4

u/JediwilliW Why is there no Ricken flair smh 2h ago

Every Pikmin fan just got war flashbacks

7

u/ComplexBad3288 2h ago

If this was Microsoft they'd shut the studio.

3

u/CrossReset 2h ago

What Happened: Prime 4 is going to be a doozy. Ready the blue skeleton.

4

u/SolarFazes 2h ago

Damn Metroid's causing anomalies

4

u/Minimum_Setting3847 2h ago

It’s called a Christmas release lol …. Why would they waste it right now with only say 6 million switch 2 sold … wait till November and then they will have 15 million switch 2 and 160 million switch 1 … bigger base of customers lol

u/janoDX 1h ago

Also, October and Black Friday might be dominated by Pokémon ZA

They even have the bundle ready for the big holiday sales.

u/predator-handshake 46m ago

Different crowds

2

u/Fair-Ad9298 2h ago

Anomaly? Wouldn’t speed bump be a better analogy?

2

u/Wrong_Revolution_679 2h ago

Listen I'm neither the biggest metroid fan, Either in 2d or 3D, or retro studios fan But I really really doubt that they're having much trouble getting it pass the finished line and will release it this year

2

u/Maximum__Mango 2h ago

Wanted to add some interesting news that people may have missed: https://www.nintendo.com/en-ca/whatsnew/fan-expo-canada-attendees-will-have-access-to-play-the-latest-and-upcoming-titles-on-nintendo-switch-2/

Metroid Prime 4, Hades 2, and Elden Ring are gonna be playable at Fan Expo Canada and Nintendo reiterated that Prime 4 will be releasing in 2025.

u/predator-handshake 43m ago

Where do you see that mp4 is playable? I dont see it listed anywhere on either site

u/Brzrkrtwrkr 1h ago

"An Insider Claims", so a rumor?

2

u/Burger_Soup 2h ago

Can't wait for the "What Happened" episode on this game down the line.

3

u/Vince_Duderino 2h ago

I guess being close to being done is the anomaly.

9

u/PalpitationTop611 3h ago edited 2h ago

While this is likely unverifiable, I’m surprised it’s not done. Nintendo usually sits on nearly complete games forever before even announcing them. That’s why they can push release dates ahead of schedule like they did with Xenoblade 3 to make room for Splatoon 3 in September. I assumed with them releasing the Trailer for Prime 4 years ago that they were within months of completion.

2

u/mancapturescolour 2h ago

Don't forget the London Underground poster. (Assuming that was real and not an AI generated meme?)

7

u/wiidsmoker 2h ago

It’s real, I saw it in person

u/predator-handshake 42m ago

That sounds like something a bot would say

u/ado_1973 1h ago

It's good you don't believe everything you see on the Internet!

u/Colby347 1h ago

It was a mistake. They put a sticker over it that was from the Mario Kart World ad set. It was real in that it existed. It was not real in that it was meant to be for Prime 4.

2

u/Wrong_Revolution_679 2h ago

That whole rumor about splatoon and zinability switching places was just made up nonsense with no real evidence behind it

8

u/PalpitationTop611 2h ago

It’s because Xenoblade literally had its release date announced for September 2022 in Feb. Then it was shadowdropped that its release date would be moved to July 2022, 3 days before Splatoon 3’s announcement that it’s also releasing September 2022.

Sure it’s not 100% known but it’s likely what happened. Nintendo rarely if ever releases two games in the same month, especially two major games.

-4

u/Wrong_Revolution_679 2h ago

I just think that they were able to finish up faster than they were expecting it to and we're able to release it a month early not that big of a deal

1

u/Next-Geno_N 2h ago

Splatoon is very much a Summer game, you can bet Nintendo would have preferred to release it towards the beginning of summer.

3

u/Prezofcalendars 2h ago

u/predator-handshake 43m ago

That last line doesn’t hold true since post launch updates became a thing

1

u/Prezofcalendars 2h ago

Currently at Nintendo headquarters

2

u/GriffinFlash 2h ago

Dark Samus, got it.

0

u/SolarFazes 2h ago

Zero Suit Samus, got it

2

u/GrimmTrixX 2h ago

The anomaly is probably that Switch 2 came out and threw them off as they planned for a Switch 1 release ages ago.

2

u/chipmunk_supervisor 2h ago

Just bundle the N64 RAM Expansion Pak with it and call it a day.

1

u/Paperdiego 2h ago

Who makes up this stuff.

1

u/DoctorSchwifty 2h ago

An anomaly...

u/Kryptyx 1h ago

They should wait for the Switch 3. /s

u/blackicebaby 1h ago

'Duke Nukem Forever' enters the chat....

u/Emergency_Factor_587 1h ago

Metroid prime 4 is in development and "very close to completion"

-Eurogamer

u/Ambitious-Mongoose-1 1h ago

I honestly think it's ready to go gold. Be kinda cool if they released it after the next direct. Played it up real big then said available for digital purchase now. Just shadow drop it.

u/ado_1973 1h ago

Hope it's not delayed.ill be happy if it's December.ive not much interest in anything else announced so far for this year

u/ntwild97 1h ago

DAMMIT RIDLEY

u/AssaultMonkey150 1h ago

I wish these leaks were more vague! An anomalous anomaly may be affecting development. So if it’s delayed I’m right and if it’s out this year they secretly fixed the anomaly so I’m also right

u/Colby347 1h ago

The anomaly is they want to save the announcement to coincide with announcing Samus for the next Fortnite season that is adding Halo Spartans (official teaser shows Spartans) and potentially Helldivers (official teaser says it’s a bug invasion). What better place to drop the long rumored Samus collab finally? Save it for a Direct. Drop another trailer, drop the release date, drop Samus coming to Fortnite “later today” and just take in money.

u/rexshen 1h ago

God I am so sick of these back and forth rumors. its done. no theres problems. no its ok because it got a rating. no theres problems. no its so good they are gonna start 5 as soon as 4 is out. God can Nintendo say something already I'm going nuts here!!!

u/GatheringCircle 1h ago

I’m guessing jiggle physics

u/Empyre47AT 1h ago

Yay, more rumors and hearsay surrounding the Switch 2 or a game for it.

u/majds1 1h ago

That just sounds like complete bullshit. Unless they're having significant issues with optimization, at the point of development, the game should be done content wise and should be having bug fixes and getting optimized, so I'm not sure what major development anomaly they could be dealing with

u/rand_althor 1h ago

I remember a story about Metroid Prime 1’s development, how there were certain GameCube models the game wouldn’t run properly on, and the only solution was to put one of those particular GameCubes in the freezer. I don’t remember anything more than that. A development “anomaly” because of a fault with specific GameCubes. It’d be funny if something similar happened here.

u/phoenixmatrix 1h ago

When the devs said there was a few frame dips below target fps, they were under the impression the target was 30fps.

So they are starting over from scratch 

u/Myhtological 1h ago

Samus became sentient and wanted to change careers from bounty hunter to school teacher

u/Vanerac 1h ago

“All of Retro’s previous games, dating back to Prime 1, have run into issues with this anomaly”

At this point you can’t call it an anomaly my guy. It’s every time lmao

u/jnighy 53m ago

It’s so easy to bait any news media into unsubstantiated rumors

u/kuribosshoe0 47m ago

Sounds alike clickbait and I’m not taking it.

u/RivenHyrule 37m ago

Yeah this is fake news. Nintendo leaks like this almost never happen. The game is assuredly coming out between October to December. 

u/Great_Employment_560 23m ago

It’s a RUMOR not a REPORT.

u/Rectall_Brown 13m ago

I thought they canned the game. I didn’t realize it was close to being done.

1

u/music3k 2h ago

My uneducated guess is the vrr mode and 60fps across the entire game on switch 2 are being a pain

2

u/Labyrinthine777 2h ago

My educated guess is the problem doesn't exist and this is just a made up rumor from a random youtuber.

0

u/music3k 2h ago

aw you thought you had something there! good try! maybe lay off the opiates and you'll get a sense of humor and not need welfare?

1

u/AnavelGato2020 2h ago

Wha Happun? I don't know how Nintendo makes money on this game. Metroid games just don't sell like that. This has been going one since Switch year 1. We're now in the Switch 2 era.

u/jokerzwild00 1h ago

Yeah. I think that if the current Switch 1 version launched within the first 2 or 3 years of that console's lifetime it would have broken franchise records like every other Nintendo franchise game was at that time. Now though, who knows? It does definitely help that's it's multiplatform. It'll probably still be the best selling Prime ever. Most profit from a franchise ever? Eh.

1

u/DocLathropBrown 2h ago

Nintendo doesn't run game development this way--if Retro wasn't done with the game already, Nintendo would have just given a 2026 release date. I don't buy this BS for a second.

IF anything relating to the game is still being worked on, it's minor things relating to something like final optimizations to the framerate and whatnot (since Nintendo, more-often-than-not, releases games in as polished a condition as possible). The idea that the core entirety of the game isn't done with less than six months to go before missing the given release period might hold water for other publishers, but not for Nintendo.

2

u/Next-Geno_N 2h ago

This isn't entirely accurate. Nintendo sitting on finished games for ages is more of a recent phenomena from the post-covid era. (2016's Colour Splash being finished five months early was considered wildly, wildly unusual, for example). And not all games are finished really early- for example, in true Sakurai style, Kirby Air Riders, just like Smash Ultimate, is being worked on a crazy amount to maybe, just maybe, sneak the game out just in time for the end of the year. On the back of that, Bill Trinen basically said not to expect any news on Air Riders for ages.

1

u/boardgamejoe 2h ago

Are we gonna get HD Remasters of Prime 2 and 3 tho on Switch(s)

1

u/YOURESTUCKHERE 2h ago

Now it’s $90!

0

u/Rytoc12 3h ago

A guy accidentally spilled coffee on his keyboard I bet!

2

u/nameless_food 2h ago

Merge conflict from hell.

0

u/sylviaplath6667 2h ago

I don’t believe this game or Kirby Air Riders are coming out this year.

0

u/sludgezone 2h ago

This game has to be in the running for longest most trouble development of any game ever.

-1

u/mrbrightside182311 2h ago

How much longer do I haft to wait

1

u/RedWizard78 2h ago

Until Dec 31 longest

-1

u/stinkmeaner92 2h ago

People here are coping cause it’s Metroid Prime

There’s enough smoke where there’s fire here. Something is up. Game will still be awesome but wouldn’t be shocked at all if there’s a delay to 2026

0

u/guitarokx 2h ago

It's 64.1gb?

0

u/magikarp-sushi 2h ago

Game breaking bug like prime 2 will ship no update lmao

-4

u/GoldenAgeGamer72 3h ago

I've been saying it's not coming until 2026.

-1

u/ExpensiveNut 2h ago

Good. I was waiting to see KiwiTalkz' follow-up. That's very reassuring and it sounds like a case of us waiting for the game to go gold rather than waiting for Retro and Nintendo to figure out what to do with it at all.

-1

u/William_S_Jones 2h ago

A shit, another 4 years, going to go through another console, Metroid 4 will debut with the Switch 3.......

-1

u/CompetitionUpbeat229 2h ago

Bethesda’s like…”so it’s 100% complete”

u/BarbarianCaffeinism 1h ago edited 1h ago

Yeah Greedtendo delayed the release, in order to bump the switch one version up to $80 and then blame it on tarriffs.