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Topic: Metroid Prime 4: The Long(er) Wait

Posts 821 to 840 of 939

Octane

Impossible to say right now, and not really something to worry about. Though at the same time it's difficult to imagine what's left of Retro after all this time. It's been like seven years since their last proper game.

Octane

NintendoWiiDS

@Octane That’s true, I’ve been concerned about the state of Retro after the consistent silence surrounding them for all this time. I wonder if those Star Fox Grand Prix rumours were actually true or they were developing an original project. What worries me there is if those projects were put on hiatus or even canned when they shifted focus to Metroid Prime 4. But their heavy recruitment of experienced talent from across the industry has hopefully began to fill the chasm of what was left behind from the mass departures since Prime 3 ended production.

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Bolt_Strike

@NintendoWiiDS The fact that we haven't seen any game from them in 7 years speaks volumes. If they were releasing something, it would've came out around the time Prime 4's development restarted. Most likely whatever they were working on in between got cancelled, and I'm not sure Prime 4 even had anything to do with it.

Bolt_Strike

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Dezzy

Octane wrote:

MP4 is gonna sell how much it's gonna sell.

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VoidofLight

The reason why the game's in development hell, is because they're focusing on making it a reality. Genetically engineering Metroids and Ridley, before releasing them, and forcing people to go out and hunt them down.

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I-U

If Metroid Prime 4 doesn't become the highest selling Metroid game, which would mean around 3 million at minimum, it should be time for Nintendo to call it when it comes to developing new Metroid games. I think releases prior to MP4 would have helped, especially a MPT HD for Switch, but I still think Nintendo with the right strategy would be able to build MP4's hype back up in time for release through Directs. If Nintendo has a decent sized audience for Metroid, Metroid Prime 4 should be able to hit 3 million and then some on the Switch.

"The secret to ultimate power lies in the Alimbic Cluster."

Grumblevolcano

@I-U I disagree and Sony is making exactly that mistake like with the situation about Japan Studio. For context Astro Bot is Japan Studio's biggest franchise so Sony is restructuring Japan Studio to only work on Astro Bot meaning Sony's 1st party library becomes less varied.

If Prime 4 is a good game and doesn't sell well, Nintendo should accept that it's ok for Metroid to be a niche franchise and smaller franchises are important in creating a diverse, interesting game lineup.

Jim Ryan doesn't understand that and every Sony franchise is becoming the next AAA open world movie game as a result with the franchises that wouldn't work with that concept being scrapped.

Grumblevolcano

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I-U

@Grumblevolcano This cannot be achieved by having development teams otherwise assigned to Metroid work on creating new IPs for Nintendo? It's getting to that point where even though I've liked my time with Metroid as a series, if it's not bringing back a decent return for the effort put in, I would much rather Nintendo take these resources to create and explore new IPs that may be more financially successful while still maintaining good critic and fan reception. 3 million shouldn't be asking too much for Prime 4's performance. Now if the game turns out to be divisive, that would be different. I don't think a divisive product will be released though hopefully.

"The secret to ultimate power lies in the Alimbic Cluster."

Magician

@Slowdive

Interesting. I wonder "what those people have said" could be? The most wild thing I've heard speculated is that MP4 will have competitive multiplayer included a la Metroid Prime Hunters...or something. Hence the quiet, long development cycle. You know, "Nintendo needs to add more games that necessitate having a NSO sub", and all that jazz.

shrug

Who knows?
Untitled

Edited on by Magician

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I-U

@Magician I don't think that multiplayer is that crazy to speculate about, especially if Prime 4's development takes its release into next year or later. Metroid Prime Hunters, a DS game, had that and a single player ready to go in around 2 years. I think the worst take I've seen on development has been suggesting that Prime 4 is going to be used to push sells for a non-existent Switch model.

"The secret to ultimate power lies in the Alimbic Cluster."

Magician

@I-U

Oh I don't know, I wouldn't qualify that as a bad take. Nintendo is going to need first party games beyond BotW2 to shill a new Switch iteration to current Switch owners. I think it's a fair assumption that only Nintendo's core audience is concerned about potentially upgrading their experience. There are probably over 70+ million Switch owners who don't give a lick about the Switch Pro discussion.

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Magician

@Slowdive

It's difficult not being at least a little bit pessimistic. Retro Studios haven't shipped a game in over seven years. A majority of whomever worked on the Prime Trilogy originally are most likely not with the studio anymore. Although, Retro Studios seems to be hiring the right people. Lots of former Halo devs and writers, but it seems that environment design and creation is still way behind schedule.

https://careers.nintendo.com/retro-studios/

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Favorite Quote: "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies." -Edna St. Vincent Millay

jump

@Magician I can't remember where I read it but it's something like 9 people left from the Prime days, none of which are notable/key workers. The key personnel left to form a new studio with their biggest game being ReCore and ports.

Nicolai wrote:

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kkslider5552000

I-U wrote:

I don't think that multiplayer is that crazy to speculate about, especially if Prime 4's development takes its release into next year or later. Metroid Prime Hunters, a DS game, had that and a single player ready to go in around 2 years.

"a DS game" is the entire key to why its different. It's abundantly clear that HD game development is a humongous task for so many developers, and in fact taking twice as long to make a game that has less content than a DS game is unfortunately somewhat believable.

My assumption is that if Prime 4 has substantial multiplayer, it will only be because another team made it.

Edited on by kkslider5552000

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I-U

Magician wrote:

@I-U
Oh I don't know, I wouldn't qualify that as a bad take. Nintendo is going to need first party games beyond BotW2 to shill a new Switch iteration to current Switch owners. I think it's a fair assumption that only Nintendo's core audience is concerned about potentially upgrading their experience. There are probably over 70+ million Switch owners who don't give a lick about the Switch Pro discussion.

Assuming the Switch Pro exists, a vast majority of the audience who would buy a Prime 4 would likely have already bought a Switch Pro for Breath of the Wild 2, assuming too that that will get a substantial bump on the Switch Pro if not being Pro exclusive. Metroid Prime 4 needs to be at its best for the current Switch owner base, unless a Switch successor is around the corner rather than a revision. Its best chance of being successful is taking a slice out of the current pie.

Slowdive wrote:

I get that people are getting impatient, it has been long since it was first announced (2017), but the restart of development wasn't even that long ago for such a large-scale project like this (2019).

I still believe Prime 4 was planned for a late 2019/early 2020 release following its E3 2017 "in development" announcement, which is why Nintendo made sure to be out in front of Prime 4 speculation in 2019 announcing the restart. I think it would have been fair to expect Prime 4 late this year based on that if not for the Covid-19 pandemic. It could be on track for that still, but I think it's more likely a 2022 game at the latest. 2022 would be a better year to market the game too with the 20 year anniversary for the original Metroid Prime.

kkslider5552000 wrote:

I-U wrote:

I don't think that multiplayer is that crazy to speculate about, especially if Prime 4's development takes its release into next year or later. Metroid Prime Hunters, a DS game, had that and a single player ready to go in around 2 years.

"a DS game" is the entire key to why its different. It's abundantly clear that HD game development is a humongous task for so many developers, and in fact taking twice as long to make a game that has less content than a DS game is unfortunately somewhat believable.

My assumption is that if Prime 4 has substantial multiplayer, it will only be because another team made it.

If it's going to have a development time close to Breath of the Wild's, it shouldn't be wrong to expect it to have a substantial amount of content relative to a DS game made in half the time. Comparing development times of a game like Spirit Tracks to that of BoTW, there is no doubt the latter with much more time in development has more to experience. Breath of the Wild is for most worth its wait, and so should Prime 4. I shouldn't be thinking that a 2023 Metroid Prime game on much better technology is giving me half the content of a 2006 Metroid Prime game on inferior technology. It doesn't have to have both a multiplayer and single player, but if it is only a single player game that single player experience for Prime 4 should be substantial next to all prior Prime games with that much development time.

Edited on by I-U

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I-U

@Snaplocket Yep, a little over 2 years ago. The restart was announced near the end of January 2019.

"The secret to ultimate power lies in the Alimbic Cluster."

Dezzy

I-U wrote:

If Metroid Prime 4 doesn't become the highest selling Metroid game, which would mean around 3 million at minimum, it should be time for Nintendo to call it when it comes to developing new Metroid games.

That's going a bit far. It's still quite a niche franchise. It could sell only 2 million and still be considered vaguely successful.

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I-U

Dezzy wrote:

I-U wrote:

If Metroid Prime 4 doesn't become the highest selling Metroid game, which would mean around 3 million at minimum, it should be time for Nintendo to call it when it comes to developing new Metroid games.

That's going a bit far. It's still quite a niche franchise. It could sell only 2 million and still be considered vaguely successful.

Can we agree that Prime 4 needs much better sales than Other M? I think that game had the most sales of the last 3 new Metroid games. There should be a substantial jump in sales with Prime 4 compared to the last 15 years of Metroid releases. If it is a game well received critically and has great fan feedback at and beyond release, Prime 4 should be able to reach those numbers if the audience is there.

"The secret to ultimate power lies in the Alimbic Cluster."

jedgamesguy

@I-U @Dezzy Metroid comes across as a very niche series for Nintendo, so weak sales'll be closer to inevitability than record double-digit numbers. As I said a few weeks back Nintendo should port Prime Trilogy to acquaint new players with the series. It'll bolster Prime 4's sales with minimal effort and will get more people invested in the series to secure its short term future. I doubt this is truly the case but I suspect Prime 4 is the Fire Emblem: Awakening, for Metroid. If it doesn't perform well it gives Nintendo and Retro less incentive to make them.

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