Rumour: Metroid Prime 4's Environment Work Might Be Outsourced

Again, isn't this how development got restarted?

Okay, to be fair, Retro is still in charge so what's the worst that could happen?

@Averagewriter I'm pretty sure retro didn't make either of those games.

@Averagewriter Federation Force was a good game (and not developed by Retro). It's only problem was its unusual choice of chibi art style, which they are obviously not aiming for with Prime 4.

Other M was also not a Retro game.

Lol they’re gonna find Samus rolling around on Sudra if they ain’t careful

The development of this game... has not been filled with confidence inspiring moments.

Uhh, yeah. This doesn’t make me feel great about this whole thing. Isn’t outsourcing what got us here in the first place?

Games get parts outsourced all the time, including AAA games. This is no different.

I don't see a reason to be nervous, since Retro is made up of different people from those who worked on the original trilogy these days anyway; this is just bringing more hands on deck.

"Parts of a game's development are often outsourced."
"..."
"News at 9 continues."

It will be interesting when the game is closer to release and we’ll be able to find out more the development. Even the reasons behind the restart are shrouded in secrecy and rumor.

@MARl0 low player population and the gear system was disappointing

i like metroidvanias but not metroid itself, i thought the atmosphere or environment was the most important part of the series

“It has potentially set its eventual release back multiple years.”

Yes, because we’ll totally have to wait around 9 years for it to release.

People here worried about outsourcing are sure gonna be real confused by the fact that most of Nintendo's products credit a lot of external companies with asset outsourcing, including ARMS and Mario Kart. This isn't like Other M, where an external company is charged with developing the game. This is Retro Studios hiring more external parties to help develop assets.

This is literally very normal in the development process.

There are so many people around the world that love Metroid. Don't see a problem with external partners producing environments, especially if this is their passion. Someone is being hired to "ensure final deliverables reflect the desired artistic vision" so there will be consistency, it won't be a Frankenstein of asset flips. You never know, with this outsourcing, the game might have an amazingly large world to explore.

Does anyone think that this will come out on the switch?

Development was reset because it wasn't meeting Nintendo's standards. Have you seen what Nintendo's high standards get you? There's literally 0 reason to doubt this game. Outsourcing can be amazing if handled correctly and it sounds like it's being handled correctly.

After shooting through the credits of Smash countless times, and seeing the number of different companies involved, I don’t think there is any major game done these days that does not have at least some outsourcing for art assets here and there.

Honestly makes me a bit nervous. If Metroid Prime 4 doesn’t do well enough Nintendo might decide the series is to expensive and to much work for to little reward.

@GrandScribe Sadly that is the case with Metroid. The best games in the series can literally codify or redefine an entire genre, but barely anyone buys them. At least in comparison to Nintendos other, more successful, series.

@AnnoyingFrenzy sadly Nintendo has never had vision when it comes to Metroid. If they ever developed vision for it Im sure it’d become a top selling game.

I was coincidentally reading this yesterday; for anyone concerned about outsourcing environments and believing it's not standard practice in the industry I'd recomend a read;

https://www.polygon.com/features/2019/8/7/20755231/the-18-month-fence-hop-the-six-day-chair-remedy-control-and-why-video-games-are-so-hard-to-make

Coming to switch 2

Imagine Metroid Prime 4 releasing in 10 years from now.

This game will be the Switch's swan song.

It's at least 2 years in the making.

Um, yeah? No surprise there, that’s often how software development of every kind gets done, and that includes video games. Plenty of Nintendo’s first-party titles contain outsourced content. How is this news to anyone?

As if the previous titles werent developed by Rare...

@SpaceboyScreams “Have you seen what Nintendo's high standards get you?“

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Tri-Force Heroes
Star Fox Zero
Wii Music
Metroid: Other M
Yoshi’s Topsy Turvy
Urban Champion

Of course every game is somebody’s favourite, and not all of these are universally reviled.

Another game famously outsourced for environmental assets? Breath of the Wild...

They need to release the Metroid Prime Trilogy HD before this gets a release, seems like a no brainer to me....

@gaga64 I want Wii Music on the Switch. Joy-Con with HD rumble should be even better at music making.

Bandai-Namco basically made Smash Ultimate though.

This game seems troubled.

@SpaceboyScreams Pokemon sword and shield?

@BANJO I agree and really hope MP Trilogy makes it to switch before MP4...

@Trajan not Nintendo. Gamefreak is an independant 3rd party studio.

Watch the credits sequence in any modern game and you’ll likely see evidence of outsourcing. Sometimes it doesn’t work, e.g. the original release of Deus Ex Human Revolution infamously outsourced the boss fights and they were terrible; but usually it’s so seamless you wouldn’t even be able to tell which bits were outsourced.

I don’t think this will help speed up delivery of the game much though, it’s more the case that outsourcing will help make a bigger game but the core work of developing the engine, the asset pipeline, the toolset, etc will take about the same amount of time.

''Monolith Soft (the dev behind Xenoblade Chronicles), for example, assisted with the landscape design in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.''

These are two completely different studios by the way. Monolith Soft Kyoto helps Nintendo with game development; anything from Pikmin 3, to Splatoon and Zelda.

Monolith Soft Tokyo develops the Xenoblade games.

Spoiler alert - Pretty much any big game has parts of it outsourced, even smaller titles often have assets that come from outsourcing. Outsourcing doesn't have to = BAD. It's a part of game development.

Eh just become Twitter friends with key people on Twitter and over time they'll talk to you and reveal a lot.

@gaga64 Though I've never played it I'd take Other M any day over Chibi-Robo Zip Lash.

@AlienX I think Other M’s got a fairly bad rap. I think a lot of the criticism aimed at it (the linearity, intrusive supporting characters, changes to Samus’ character) can just as easily be said of Metroid Fusion, which everyone loves. And it tries something unique, blending the 2D and 3D games.

It’s still a bit short and overly cinematic, but it’s not really that bad a game.

However WarioWare: Snapped (which I forgot about earlier) is just plain broken.

Outsourcing work is nothing new. Game devs do it all the time. I don't really see how this indicates anything too crazy.

As for the Other M criticism - Yes, some of the plot is finicky and it's way too linear at times. But if you can get the game fairly cheap, it is very much worth your time. The combat is fun, some secrets are hidden well, and it still feels like a Metroid game to me.

Someone sure does love watching the Doc.

Love the Metroid series. Nintendo has focused on series that I don’t card about (fire emblem Pokémon and ports) that the masses love.
But it’s been so long since a good Metroid that I don’t care until the next one has gone gold.

@MARl0 Being on 3DS didn't help it either. It had a solid concept, but it should have been akin to a mash up of Halo and Gears of War with a Metroid flair on a home HD console.

@Averagewriter retro didnt make those 2 games. Retro made prime 1,2 and 3...that's it.ninja theory and next level games.i did a little work and goggled it before making my comment

Just so everyone knows RETRO DIDNT MAKE OTHER M AND FEDERATION FORCE..I goggle before making my comment

@GrandScribe I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. They never had "vision"? Could you explain that a bit more please?

"They outsourced the environments, ZOMG!"
Quit tripping. Of all the design concepts to outsource, that's the absolute least worry. Different alien civilizations would have radically different architecture, anyway (we already saw this with Prime 1-3).

@AnnoyingFrenzy Nintendo knows Metroid is a good series but they’ve never shown the ability to maximize its potential especially with regards to marketing.

@Trajan Nintendo can't control what GameFreak puts out, that's why so many people want GameFreak to sell Pokemon to Nintendo.

Everybody’s in an uproar over the development hell of Metroid Prime 4, meanwhile I’m just over here waiting for the original trilogy to drop. I’m a simple man, I don’t ask for much.

@gaga64 None of your examples are AAA games. Recent AAA titles being Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Smash Ultimate, Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8. When they go all out, they don't disappoint.

Absolutely nothing wrong with outsourcing; Nintendo does that for every big game now. That said the development cycle with this thing is troubling. Seems like there’s a lot of pressure to deliver, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what effect that has on the game. If we see anything more than another teaser in 2020, they are rushing it

@GrandScribe Yeah, and when they do have good marketing the game turns out to be extremely divisive (Other M).

Metroid Prime 4's development is not sounding too well.

Of course another Metroid article means a bunch of comments and optimism yet when it finally releases it underperforms saleswise and Nintendo gets blamed for it.

Just like the rest of the Metroid games.

@MARl0 That and it was the first Metroid game since Other M. If you wanted to do a spin off game, fine but don't make it the first new game in the series for years. That would be like if the new F Zero game was Captain Falcon Teaches Math.

As long as its outsourced to talented people...

@Averagewriter by the way retro didn't make any of those games what they did make is Metroid prime 1,2,3, and onto the fourth one, I'm pretty sure they know what they are doing they already made 3 games and they were all pretty good.

The faster the better!

@SpaceboyScreams true, but you never specified AAA in your original comment. And I doubt when they started work on the games I mentioned they were intending to do anything but the best they could with the ideas they had. But sometimes all the best will in the world can’t save something from being underwhelming.

I have faith that they’re working their hardest to create a fantastic game with MP4, and are well aware of the weight of expectation. But I’m also wary that no game could possibly reach the heights of those expectations. And as great as MP2 and 3 were, the first is still comfortably the best.

I've got no way to assess whether or not this is a good rumour. It feels... not optimal.

@AnnoyingFrenzy to really get the series to sell well I think they’re gonna have to spend quite a bit more on advertising for Metroid Prime 4 and the HD remasters of 1-3 if they’re in development than they’re comfortable with. I think if they do enough advertising then we might just see the series become popular maybe near Zelda level popularity if we’re lucky.

This is nothing new. Development teams do this when they need extra hands on deck. It's a contract for one role. Zelda has also significantly ramped up its development staff size. This just means work is going to get done and done well, at least presumably.

I dont like this aproach. It seems retro is not the studio it once was and mp4 wouldnt be as good as the first 3 😞

@gaga64 nope the gams just boring and the story dumb af

@Yoshinator majoras mask disagrees. And guess who caused that game to be rushed? Miyamoto

By the time the game release, we would probably see the new "Switch Pro".

@Averagewriter If im correct most of the staff that made prime 3 still work for retro so i think we are in good hands, but I can understand the doubt. Mpff and other m were disappointing and mp4 is going to be a massive undertaking but im sure retro will put good care into it and nintendo obviously cares about it enough to reboot it and make sure a good game is made.

You have to wonder if this game will even be profitable for Nintendo. Seems like they are spending a lot of money on it. I hope it sells well.

Just tell me they’re adding a good multiplayer mode and a Metroid Prime collection is on the way.

I have no problem with extra help being used to get Prime 4 out on schedule. I'm expecting to be able to purchase the game sometime in November 2021.

Man, the comments in this section are shocking lol

Outsourcing is quite literally the way the WORLD works nowadays, if it's good or bad that's not the point of this. This is normal in any kind of work and is also normal on videogames.

And the fact that people are going online to search for news about this !?!? What? Man, i wonder how would they react when even govt outsource stuff all the time.

Jesus, people making an Armageddon out of nothing.

this might be me but I could see Metroid Prime 4 releasing sometime in 2021

As long as it's done right. So long as it's not being rushed get the game out sooner.

@Averagewriter I just read your thing and started typing so sorry if you got the same answer.