Nintendo finally gave Metroid fans what they wanted with the announcement of a major new entry in the series for the Switch, but the developer most closely associated with the best 3D Metroid games is not working on this new project.
Retro Studios is not making Metroid Prime 4 for Switch, according to Nintendo of America marketing boss Bill Trinen. Instead, Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe is overseeing the project with a new team. Tanabe acted as producer on Metroid Prime as well as recent releases like Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Paper Mario: Color Splash. Metroid Prime 4 is due out some time in 2018.
But this leaves us wondering what is going on with Retro Studios. The Austin-based developer is best known for creating the beloved Metroid Prime games, and it is responsible for both of its direct sequels. More recently, Retro produced Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze for the Wii and Wii U, respectively. Those games were critically acclaimed, but Nintendo fans have wanted to see Retro do something new with Metroid. It looks like that isn’t happening (another team is also working on the Metroid II reimagining for 3DS). And Nintendo did not show any games at this E3 so far from Retro.
We’ve reached out to Nintendo and Retro to ask what the companies are working on.