Six years ago, Nintendo made headlines when the company announced that it was scrapping development on Metroid Prime 4, and starting over with Retro Studios at the helm. While the Austin, Texas based development team had made a name for itself on the first three games in the series, it had been largely quiet since releasing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2014. This left a five-year gap in the company’s resume, and fans have wondered for years about what the developer was working on during the interim. After all this time, it seems we finally have an answer, and it would have been a new IP.
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In a post on ResetEra, YouTuber Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly revealed that the game would have been “some type of Music RPG game where the main mechanic was singing.” While Retro worked on this new IP, Bandai Namco had taken over Metroid Prime 4. However, the music game turned out to be “a huge disaster.” Nintendo apparently pulled the plug on the project, and set Retro to work on remasters of the original Metroid Prime games. After some tensions were smoothed over with Metroid Prime producer Kensuke Tanabe, Nintendo cancelled Bandai Namco’s work on Metroid Prime 4, and the project was reborn under Retro Studios.
“When everything fell through with Bandai Namco’s work on Prime 4 it was given back to Retro, they patched things up with Tanabe after their fallout and they could only finish a remaster of the first Prime as all resources had to be moved to Prime 4,” said Reilly.
When it comes to leaks like this, we usually advise readers to take them with a grain of salt. That having been said, Reilly is one of the most reliable sources of information there is when it comes to Retro Studios. Over the last few years, the Kiwi Talkz YouTube channel has interviewed a ton of former Retro Studios developers, and we’ve gotten a lot of new context and reveals as a result. This is probably as close to an official source as we’re likely to get on the topic, so fans can probably assume this was, in fact, what Retro was working on.
Reilly went on to say that he’s unsure of the status of remasters of Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid Prime 3. While there have been a lot of rumors about remasters for these two games since the first one’s release, Retro has been busy working on the next entry in the series. It’s possible that Nintendo will outsource those remasters to a different studio; that wouldn’t be unheard of for Nintendo, and they’ve done it with other games originally developed by Retro.
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While the music themed RPG clearly fell through, 2025 will be the year that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is finally released. Fans of Retro Studios have been waiting a very long time for the developer’s next game, and the next entry in the Prime series. After more than a decade between releases, hopefully the wait will prove worth it!
Are you happy to finally learn what Retro was working on after Tropical Freeze? Do you think it’s a good thing Nintendo shifted the team to Metroid Prime 4 instead? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
