Leaked Metroid Prime 4 Release Date Seems Unlikely

According to a new retailer listing, Metroid Prime 4 is releasing on October 20, 2020. In other words, it's hitting the Nintendo Switch later this year, a day before Halloween, which is a Friday. Now, as you may know, Friday is the most common day for big releases, and Nintendo has been releasing many of its big games on Friday for years. In other words, this part of the leak checks out, but it's about the only thing that checks out, which is to say, this leaked date is almost certainly not accurate.

For one, I don't think Nintendo would release such a big game a day before Halloween. While big games will drop Halloween week, it's not incredibly common, unless they are horror games. There's also the matter of the source: Supergamer. While Supergamer is a notable retailer in the Czech Republic, it's region specific. In other words, this isn't Amazon, Best Buy, or Walmart. Unless every retailer already knows the release date for the game -- and Supergamer simply let the cat slip out the bag -- there's no way Nintendo would tell the retailer and not other retailers. Further, the retailer wouldn't then push the listing live and leave it live. As you may know, smaller region specific retailers are known to either estimate a release date or put a placeholder. In fact, sometimes they simply want clicks, and will thus put a date on their listing.

That all said, the most obvious reason this date isn't real is because it was only a year ago that Nintendo confirmed development of the project was starting over with a new developer. Now, depending on the scale of the game and how much was carried over from the initial project, it's possible the title could be turned out in a little less than two years, but this seems unlikely.

Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit em up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. When do you think we will see Metroid Prime 4, and what do you want to see from the Nintendo Switch exclusive?