Metroid Prime 4 No Longer Looks Likely For 2018

At E3 2017 Nintendo gave their hardcore followers a major jolt of excitement by announcing Metroid Prime 4 was in the works. The fact that the Metroid franchise is returning to consoles is certainly great news, but most experienced fans sets themselves up for a nice long wait – Nintendo only showed a Metroid Prime 4 logo, so the game must be pretty early in development.

Or is it? Shortly following E3, Nintendo of America's Charlie Scibetta dropped this encouraging quote:

"We've announced a nice lineup through this year, and next year we have some big games coming with Metroid Prime 4. 2018 will be around Metroid, Kirby, Yoshi, and a new Pokemon game has been announced."

Was that a confirmation that Metroid Prime 4 will be coming out in 2018? It sure sounded like it, but, unfortunately, Nintendo has since backtracked. The company has since clarified that Scibetta meant to say "2018 and beyond," and Nintendo's latest earnings report further shoots down the fantasy of Metroid Prime in 2018.

As always, Nintendo's earnings report updates their release schedule – games like Kirby and Yoshi have 2018 release dates, and Pokemon for the Nintendo Switch is listed as "2018 and beyond." Meanwhile, Metroid Prime 4 is simply listed as TBA. That's…not super promising. Sure, technically TBA could mean "announced tomorrow and released next week," but usually if Nintendo doesn't even want to put a date on something, that means it's a long way out.

I don't think most longtime Metroid or Nintendo fans will be too shocked by this. Metroid games take nearly as long as Zelda games to make, and going from only a logo to a finished game within the span of the year seemed too good to be true. Still, it was a nice fantasy while it lasted.

Metroid Prime 4 rolls onto Nintendo Switch, uh, sometime. In the meantime, Metroid: Samus Returns hits the 3DS on September 15.

[via The Daily Express]