Metroid Prime 4, especially in comparison to Metroid Dread, is a bit of an odd duck from an outsider’s perspective. In the time since Metroid Prime 4’s E3 2017 announcement, Metroid Dread was announced, released, has been updated with new modes, and has a Boss Rush mode coming in April. This is due to, as many fans know, a particularly hard development for Metroid Prime 4.
Metroid Prime 4 was, at first, reportedly in development by Bandai Namco Studios of Japan and Singapore, not Retro Studios. But, after a silent 2018, Nintendo announced that the development of Metroid Prime 4 had been restarted under Retro Studios—the creator of the previous games.
Retro Studios Shares a New Image--Likely of Metroid Prime 4
Because of this, Metroid Prime 4 has been incredibly but understandably silent. Since then, Retro Studios has published several job listings for the game on its Twitter profile, but little to nothing else. In fact, all of last year was just a few job listings, with the most recent job listing post being January 2022. However, the Twitter account has done something unique for the first time in years—Retro Studios changed its banner photo to that of something for Metroid Prime.
Nothing can be really seen in the image, except a bunch of blue lighting and a silhouette of Samus. If someone looks closely, it seems that the various blue shadings also showcase some form of mask, but there’s nothing really substantial to be taken from the image—except the posting of the image itself. It is a small flicker of life for Metroid Prime 4, but it is indeed a flicker of life.
After the success of Metroid Dread, all eyes are on Metroid Prime 4. The timing of this post could also suggest that news is on the way. Fans have been waiting for years, and if this holds true, perhaps fans will learn more about Metroid Prime 4 this year.
Metroid Patterns
It's not as well-defined as the new image, but Metroid has a particularly unique release schedule. Typically, Metroid games come out in clusters with huge gaps in time between. From 2002-2010, 9 Metroid games came out. Nothing released from then to 2016's Federation Force. Samus Returns followed in 2017. 2018-2020, for obvious reasons, was silent. So, with Metroid Dread out, it's not impossible Nintendo holds this pattern and releases Metroid Prime 4 this year or more likely next.
Recently, Nintendo did hold a Direct presentation highlighting several releases in the first half of 2022. In the next few months, especially around the general E3 time, fans will likely learn more about more upcoming titles. This doesn’t mean the latter half of 2022 as a release date for Metroid Prime 4, but as the fall release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 becomes Nintendo's primary focus, it could be that Nintendo sets Metroid Prime 4 up as the next big game within the next year or so. It all remains to be seen, but a flicker of life in a long-silent franchise can only be a good thing.
Metroid Prime 4 is in development for Switch.
