There was a rumor that Nintendo bought a small development company a while back -- maybe that's what Tanabe meant when he said that a 'talented new development team' is working on MP4. And honestly, I have no worries about who is developing the game as long as Tanabe is the guy in-charge of it.

If they are not making it, what are they exactly doing at the moment? I'm fine with a non-Retro Metroid Prime, but they haven't released anything since Tropical Freeze, haven't they?

One of my 2 e3 predictions was that they'd announce a new Metroid. Glad I was proved right.

I have no problem at all with the news that Retro isn't working on it but I am concerned that it sounds like not much development has happened on the game so far. I was hoping that Retro had been working on Metroid for the past 3.5 years as I really believe that Metroid Prime 4 needs to make the same leap that BotW did with Zelda and that means going open world. I am frankly a bit concerned that they don't have enough content to show even a demo at E3, I mean Zelda took 5 years for Nintendo to make with massive resources devoted to it and it will take at least that long to make a proper open world Metroid. I am actually quite concerned here: Metroid needs to go open world for the franchise to move to the next level and if they only go half way the game will fall flat and at this point it will probably be the end for the franchise.

My concerns regarding this are twofold:

(1) I sincerely hope it hasn't been handed off to a subpar or unfitting developer.

(2) What on earth have Retro been doing for the last three and half years?

This makes me curious as to who is handling Metroid Prime 4 and what Retro Studios has been working on the last 3-4 years.

Edit - Curl beat me to it.

Honestly, I think Nintendo has just now started development on MP4, like some already said, so that the fans could stop bitching about it so I expect to see MP4 release like in 2 to 3 more years? And yes Tanabe (and Miyamoto) made Metroid Prime possible but Tanabe is also the main reason the team at Retro Studios split and Federation Force... So let's hope he takes MP4 seriously and makes Metroid popular again.

I'd like to think Nintendo wouldn't let this be messed up, but they did let Other M and Federation Force happen, so I'm still wary.

As for Retro, yeah, are they even making games any more?

Of course they are, DKCR 3 is a no brainer for them to develop even if it turns out to be a mediocre entry we'll have ourselves an awesome second DKC trilogy and it will probably sell well like it did on Wii.

So what they've been doing all these years is either DKCR3, a new IP OR..... Absolutely nothing. Honestly I really want them to do their own IP everybody expects them to do Metroid all the time which is really sad.

I sincerely hope you're right. I freaking adore the Metroid Prime trilogy and the thought of a worthy modern successor makes me giddy with excitement. I'm just so scared of being let down.