That would be glorious. Then they would make all of them like that and the fanboys on the internet would have a freaking heart attack.

Nintendo would give up on making 3D Metroid games, which is....... not a good thing actually!

Considering you've ignored the Prime trilogy, I'm not sold based on your evidence. I do however hope and think that Metroid will make its return on the next Nintendo system in the launch window, not on the Wii U.

Just thinking about a truly next gen prime and gets me so fuzzy inside. If the next entry isn't prime, I presume it'll be for the 3DS, possibly cross platform and a 2015/16 release

i just realized though that you made a mistake. ff13 came out in 2009. but ff12 came out in 2006, so your theory still does hold up.

why would i have to consider the prime trilogy? nintendo still releases one every 8 years. i dont see what the prime trilogy has to do with any of that.

The one thing the history of Metroid releases tells us is that Nintendo releases them randomly.
Prime released on the Gamecube in 2002, Prime 2 in 2004 (it also came to Wii and Wii U), Prime 3 2007, Other M in 2010.

Looking at recent history we should have had another Metroid game by now.
It sure as hell hasn't been 8 years between core Metroid releases.

IMO we'll probably hear something about a new Metroid game this year at an E3 Direct, along with a new F-Zero, Wave Race, new 3D Mario, new IPs, all coming out in 2016.

There haven't been enough consoles from Nintendo to say there's a guarantee that there won't be a Metroid on the Wii U. The fact there have been regular releases of games for the series in recent times means it's far more likely that we'll see a new game soon.

In order for anyone to say there's a pattern for releases there has to first be a pattern and a single group of 3 platforms isn't enough to establish a precedent for this type of thing, you'd need at least 2, even then patterns for game releases can always change because developers and publishers make up their own minds for when they want to release their games. ;)

Oh I misread it as "next" metroid prime due in 2018. In which case metroids are released more frequently then 8 years, but you simply said "new". Still because of the frequency of releases, more then you've noted; I'd wouldn't be surprised if that was simply down to chance.  

I do believe this is a variation or derivation of "post hoc ergo propter hoc." 

In other words, nothing to see here.  Move along.

This sounds like a Loomy narty confirm theory, Nintendo always skips the third console? just because they did it once doesn't mean they ALWAYS do it.

so youre just going to deny history then