Nintendo Brings in Retro Studios, Restarts Metroid Prime 4 Development From Scratch

Nintendo is bringing in Retro Studios to work with Metroid Prime 4s producer and start over on game development, Nintendo announced Friday morning. The news comes about a year and a half after Nintendo announced that the game was in development for the Nintendo Switch internally. Producer Kensuke Tanabe previously worked on a slew of

Nintendo is bringing in Retro Studios to work with “Metroid Prime 4’s” producer and start over on game development, Nintendo announced Friday morning.

The news comes about a year and a half after Nintendo announced that the game was in development for the Nintendo Switch internally. Producer Kensuke Tanabe previously worked on a slew of Nintendo titles including “Metroid Prime: Federation Force,” “Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze,” and “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.”

“We have decided to reexamine the development structure itself and change it,” Shinya Takahashi said in a rare video from Nintendo on Youtube Friday morning. “Specifically, we have decided to have the producer, Kensuke Tanabe, work in trust and collaboration with the studio that developed the original Metroid Prime series, Retro Studios in the United States and restart development from the beginning.”

Related Stories

The YouTube logo with a crown VIP+

Why YouTube Spending Signals a Changing Content Market

LACO 3 ARTISANS

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Receives $2 Million Gift for New Orchestral Works by Media Composers

The decision came after Nintendo decided that the current development progress had not “reached the standards we seek in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series.”

Popular on Variety

“Nintendo always strives for the highest quality in our games; and in the development phase, we challenge ourselves and confront whether the game is living up to that quality on a daily basis. If we’re not satisfied with the quality we aren’t able to deliver it to our customers with confidence and the game will not live up to our fans’ expectations,” Takahashi said. “From this perspective, we have determined that the current development status of the game is very challenged, and we had to make a difficult decision as a development team.”

Takahashi said that by collaborating with Retro Studios they believe they can make the game something that meets expectations.

“We did not make this decision lightly,” he said. “This change will essentially mean restarting development from the beginning, so the completion of the game will be delayed from our initial internal plan. We strongly recognize that this delay will come as a disappointment to the many fans who have been looking forward to the launch of ‘Metroid Prime 4.'”

He said that it will be a “long road” until Nintendo can next provide an update on the game’s development and that development will be “extensive.” The Metroid Prime series turned the beloved Metroid franchise into a first-person action-adventure game. Retro Studios developed the first three games in the series.

News of the delay for the game comes as Nintendo clears a strong holiday season for the Nintendo Switch, but is still struggling to hit its ambitious goal of selling 20 million Nintendo Switch in the 2018 fiscal year.

Read More About:

Jump to Comments

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXKFjqCYpqGenHyvsdasZqehnqmyr7DOZpmroZ6cwG61zWapnqyipHq0wNSdoKirXaeytMDAq6usZZ2awbO7yJ1kqaqZorJugIydnK%2BdnKS9rrHNrWSfqp%2BierSv0ZqrnKBdZn9xf5BqbnFsaWQ%3D

 Share!