Metroid Prime 4: Release date, trailer, gameplay, and more

One of Nintendo’s lesser-known yet still beloved franchises is Metroid — a series that originally began on the NES, putting us in the shoes of bounty hunter Samus Aran. Now, over 35 years later, fans are eagerly awaiting the next entry in the series, Metroid Prime 4, which has been in the works for several years now.

The Prime series takes the formula introduced in the 2D games and turns it into a 3D, first-person adventure that still very much feels like Metroid, despite the perspective shift.

While there isn’t much we know about Metroid Prime 4there are some small tidbits of information around the internet here and there. We’ve scoured as much as we could find to bring you everything we know about Metroid Prime 4.

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Trailers

Announcement trailer

Originally revealed during E3 2017, Metroid Prime 4 was shown in the most minuscule capacity possible. Since it was still very early in development at that time, Nintendo only had a logo ready, revealing that the game was in development and pretty much nothing else via its announcement trailer. The trailer had some fancy space-themed “beep boops,” but aside from that, only the title was shown.

While this was an excellent announcement, it was tough to get too overly excited for a game that we knew nothing about. Nonetheless, you can check out its initial E3 2017 announcement trailer above.

Release date

Metroid Prime 4 has had a rocky history since its original announcement in 2017. At the time, there were rumors that Bandai Namco was working on the game, with Nintendo overseeing its development. It was never confirmed which developer was working on it initially, only that Retro Studios — the team behind the other Prime games — would not be involved for some reason (likely due to other projects).

After its announcement, the game went radio silent for a while. Fast forward to January 2019, and Nintendo announced that development on Metroid Prime 4 had been restarted due to a lack of quality in what had been created up to that point. “Ever since the announcement [of Metroid Prime 4]we have not been able to give you an update, but as a result of the continuing development since that time, 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,” Shinya Takahashi of Nintendo said during an update video (which you can watch above).

“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,” Takahashi continued. “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.”

Nintendo finally announced that Retro Studios will be handling the development of Metroid Prime 4headed by longtime series producer Kensuke Tanabe. In the video, Takahashi said, “It will be a long road until the next time we will be able to update you on the development progress,” and since then, we haven’t heard anything else about the game from Nintendo.

We are looking for a 𝗕𝗼𝘀𝘀/ 𝗔𝗜 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 to join us on our journey to develop Metroid Prime 4! #GameJobs #GameDev #GameDevJobshttps://t.co/NWVPLGel3E pic.twitter.com/T6Hexjia6s
— Retro Studios (@RetroStudios) December 14, 2020

As of December 2020, Retro Studios was still in the midst of hiring for the project. In fact, it was looking for a boss/AI designer, which proved development was still early at that time. Even in July 2022, Retro Studios is still looking to fill a number of vacancies, including an environment designer, gameplay engineer, and lead concept artist.

All of this is to say that Metroid Prime 4 won’t be ready any time soon. Even if Retro hit the ground running right away in January 2019, that only puts it three years deep into development, and considering the production hurdles and the fact that the team is still hiring for major roles, you shouldn’t expect to play until 2023 at the earliest. A more realistic estimate places its release sometime in 2024, given the high expectations from fans and Nintendo’s focus on quality. Ultimately, this is a good thing, but the wait will no doubt be excruciating.

In February 2022, Retro Studios updated its Twitter page with new art featuring Samus, serving as the first new piece of information about the game since the 2019 video announcing the project had been restarted.

Sure, it’s not much, but at this point, any news about Metroid Prime 4 is worth discussing. Retro Studios and Nintendo no doubt knew the community would notice this subtle update, so perhaps this is an indication of a developmental milestone, hopefully meaning it’ll be ready to show soon.

One thing to consider is that a remaster of the first Metroid Prime game is reportedly in the works according to GamesBeat reporter Jeff Grubb (via GameSpot). Grubb says he’s been told “pretty definitively” that all three games in the trilogy will be remastered but that Nintendo will release them individually to draw out the build to Prime 4. If true, this could indicate that Prime 4 is further away than we had hoped.