Topic: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

@DarthNocturnal Yeah, I guess that makes sense!

@jump Apparently Retro showed Nintendo a prototype that impressed them enough that they handed it over to them when development restarted. We know nothing about what it was they made though.

@link3710 you got a link to that? I remember them saying Retro was chosen to work on this as they had worked on the original (even though the actual team are gone now) rather than an impressive prototype.

@jump https://gonintendo.com/stories/327310-rumor-details-on-metroi...

Looks like it was just rumors, not an official interview.

I assume everything Bamco worked on for MP4 was discarded. From my perspective, development for MP4 officially didn't begin until January 2019 when Nintendo broadcasted the apology. The game is years away, folks. Late 2022 at the earliest.

@link3710 so not fact then ;p

@Slowdive Ninty never said Retro are in charge, it’s still Kensuke Tanabe.

Wow, a whole month earlier then, it will be done any day in that case ;p

@jump Yup, clearly I'd forgotten the details.

@Magician Well, it was never confirmed to be solely Bamco developing. If the rumors are true, it was being developed in pieces in multiple locations. So some of the work may have been done by Nintendo proper, which means it might've been kept.

@Slowdive Oh, there's no question it was before January. In fact, December is quite likely late. They almost certainly wouldn't hand Retro the keys and then immediately announce it publically. They'd wait until they were sure the project would make it past it's initial few months (as that's the time most projects are scrapped). So I'd wager development started at the latest in September 2018, but quite likely things started moving in June or July.

And if the rumors of them getting on the project via a prototype/demo of some sort are true, it may be even earlier that the first work was done.

I think it actually started in 20XX

@Slowdive actually big decisions and changes do happen quite a lot, people don’t sit down and decided on things and then it’s done, the gdd is constantly updated even during development and pre-production can take over a year before development even starts.

@Slowdive Bamco were contractors, it’s relatively easy to cut ties off them legally. You pay for work done and move on. It wasn’t some kind of legal entity joint venture that needs to be dissolved.

Your idea of “conceptualisation” seems misinformed if you believe it can take a month for a big game. Just getting concept art done will take more than a month.

Slowdive is intentionally obtuse and moves the goal post in his thoughts on the past and predictions.

we sure do have nothing to talk about

i mean that's what happens when a game has to be made from scratch a 2nd time

So something weird is that they've been hinting at something for Sylux, a character from the DS spinoff game, appearing in a main game since Prime 3 in 2007. So its gonna be weird if he's not given a ton of time in the game after what will be a 15 year wait.

@Slowdive Watch it if you want. It's not even slightly critical to have seen the scene to understand Prime 4's story, and I can say that without even knowing what Prime 4's story is.

Oh yeah, also speaking of Sylux, we don't even know that that cutscene was for Prime 4. For all we know, it could be for the new 2D Metroid.

https://shinesparkers.net/interviews/richard-vorodi/

Check out the interview. It's confirmed that Tanabe and his team know exactly who Sylux is and what his role is, so I doubt that part will be changed by Prime's restart. It's clear they've had some sort of story with him in mind since the start.

I've been wondering if Retro Studios and Nintendo are pulling a Dinosaur Planet on us.
We know Retro Studios were working on a game before starting work on Metroid Prime 4. Could it be that Nintendo saw an opportunity here to turn a big part of that development into a Metroid game like they asked Rare to turn Dinosaur Planet into Star Fox Adventures?

I wish they'd port federation force with local wireless play as well as metroid 2 remake.

@Rexenoboy I doubt it, Metroid Prime 4 will have expectations of what it should be so you can’t re-skin any game to make do.

I don't disagree with you, but by that reckoning, the game could well be on the next Nintendo console. By then Switch will be close to six years old and either right near the end of its run or already superseded by the next console.

@jump
If they were making a first-person shooter, it could easily be done.
Again, I'm not saying I'm sure this is what they're doing, it's just something that's been going through my head.