Metroid Prime 4 release date: Sources confirm Bandai Namco IS at the helm of Metroid Prime 4

Evan Gower January 17, 2018

Metroid Prime 4 is in development at Bandai Namco, according to sources that confirmed its existence to Eurogamer after rumours began flying earlier this week.

Eurogamer‘s sources corroborate the claim that Bandai Namco Studios Singapore is leading the project in tandem with Nintendo. It’s believed that the studio is the best positioned of Bandai Namco’s development teams due to a large number of ex-LucasArts developers now working at the studio after Star Wars 1313 was shuttered.

Since its original report, Eurogamer now believes that Bandai Namco’s Japan studio has taken over on the project now its Singapore studio has taken the game to a reasonable level. It’s believed the Singapore studio has now moved onto another Switch game.

Metroid Prime 4 was announced during last year’s Nintendo E3 showcase. Since its announcement, little else has been shown about the title and nobody even knows who’s actually helming the development now that Retro Studios has stepped aside.

Rumours around Bandai Namco taking up the job first began surfacing earlier this week when YouTuber Doctre81 found a tidbit of information on a Bandai Namco employee’s resume suggesting they had been working on Metroid Prime 4.

The listing, which has now been removed, stated that the employee was a lead designer at Bandai Namco Studios Singapore. While there, they worked on an “Unannounced IP” that’s described as a “First Person Shooter/Adventure Exclusive to the Nintendo Switch”, alongside the currently unannounced Ridge Racer 8 and upcoming Ace Combat 7.

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Now Eurogamer has had reliable sources confirm that this is the case, it’s not too surprising to believe that Bandai Namco would be picked as the studio of choice for Nintendo’s long-awaited sequel. In past years, Bandai Namco’s development studios have worked on Both F-Zero GX and Pokkén Tournament. They’ve also worked on the Star Fox, Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. franchises too.

Metroid Prime 4: Everything you need to know

It’s been ten years since a new Metroid Prime game was brought into this world by Nintendo. In those intervening years we’ve had a couple of spin-offs, a new 2D Metroid game in Metroid: Samus Returns and series protagonist and badass galactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran, has turned up in other Nintendo titles. However, what we’re all really looking forward to is another Metroid Prime game.

Thankfully, Nintendo made fan dreams come true with the announcement that Metroid Prime 4 would be coming to the Nintendo Switch in the not-too-distant future.

If you want to see just how excited Nintendo fans were, cast your eyes to the tweet below.

Metroid Prime 4 release date: When is it coming out?

Initially, if you had told me that Metroid Prime 4 would see a 2018 release date, I’d have laughed you out of my personal space. Seeing as we’ve only had one slight teaser, it’s hard to believe we’d get Metroid Prime 4 any earlier than 2019. However that all changed after a slip-up from Nintendo’s Norwegian website, and we now might well have our answer.

According to Nintendo’s Norwegian website, Metroid Prime 4 could hit shelves in 2018. The news slipped out after the Nintendo partner published a roundup of all Nintendo’s accomplishments in 2017, as well as its plans for 2018. After a bit of translating from Norwegian, it seemed Nintendo was gearing up to release some interesting titles.

“We are all looking forward to 2018, which will include games like Bayonetta 3 and Metroid Prime 4,” the post read.

However, when internet sleuths caught wind of this revelation, Nintendo’s Norwegian website quickly changed to read “2017 has definitely been Nintendo’s year and we are looking forward to new and exciting titles in 2018.” As you can see, all mention of Metroid Prime 4 or Bayonetta 3 has been scrubbed from existence. Suspicious.

Before you go getting hopped up on the potential of Metroid Prime 4 landing in 2018, it’s worth noting that the Norwegian Nintendo website isn’t run by Nintendo. Instead, it’s Nintendo partner Bergsala who heads up the operation, a Scandinavian distributor for the Japanese firm. Bergsala may very well know the release date for Metroid Prime 4, but it’s wise to remain sceptical until we hear it from Nintendo of America, Nintendo of Europe or Nintendo of Japan. Still, fingers crossed for Metroid Prime 4 to arrive sooner, rather than later.

Metroid Prime 4 story: What will it be about?

As far as the story is concerned, we really have no idea. The juiciest bit of Metroid Prime 4 news we received at E3 2017 was barely a thimble full of pulp. Nintendo’s extremely cryptic trailer did little more than provide a glimpse at a vast galaxy before the ‘Metroid Prime 4’ logo eased its way into the frame. That was it. You can watch it below:

However, expect to see a return of the Space Pirates, Metroids, probably a reappearance of Ridley again and a multitude of different beam augmentations and visors for Samus Aran to utilise on her journey across a handful of planets. I’d also expect some form of continuation on from 2007’s Metroid Prime 3. It may have had a rather closed ending to it, but there are hints of a new world as we saw Samus enter hyperspace after defeating her evil doppelganger Dark Samus.

We also know that this entry into the Metroid Prime series isn’t being developed by series founders Retro Studios. It’s unclear if this is an in-house production or another partner studio working on Metroid Prime 4, but that’s certain to have an impact on the game’s direction.