Metroid 4 released 12 years ago :P

This is why I like it when Nintendo struggles.

They start to care.

Nintendo is expanding at such a fast rate, I'm happy for them! Can't wait to see what they have in the pipe for the Wii U and 3DS!

Sorry, I was going by RockStar's School of Counting lolll

Is it so hard to believe that studios hire more people when they realize they are behind schedule and in danger of not meeting the deadline for release?

1. Retro has been gradually beefing up their staff for the last year+. Nintendo even said that they want Retro to have the ability to be working on more than one game at a time from here on out.

2. Monolith Soft wasn't a very big developer to begin with, so increasing their staff makes sense considering the scope of games like X. Plus, again, I'm sure Nintendo wants them working on something else ASAP as well.

3. Nintendo has, despite appearances, been making moves to beef up their own internal development staff as well as increase the overall amount of 1st and 2nd party/3rd party exclusives being made for their systems, for some time. They know Wii U needs software, and they also realize they need to do everything they can themselves to get more games on their console since third parties are dragging their feet.

All in all, while I would still say it wouldn't hurt them to add some company like Platinum or Vanillaware, Nintendo has a pretty strong roster of development houses. Beyond their own internal teams, Intelligent Systems, Game Freak, Arika, Camelot (sometimes), Treasure (sometimes), Good-Feel, Next Level, Retro Studios, Alpha Dream, Nd Cube, Level-5, 1-Up Studio, skip LTD, HAL Laboratory, Monster Games, etc.

Personally, I just hope to see Retro finally make an original IP of their own, just because I'm curious to see what they'd do. They don't need to just be the DK/Metroid Prime team, even though that seems to be all anyone wants/expects from them.

They just got some really nice experience doing 2D gameplay.

I want a new 2D console Metroid game. This is where the series belongs.

didn't Miyamoto already hint that Retro is big enough to be a two team developer? besides those developers they hired before aren't devs for DK as they have things not needed in that sort of game. I'm pretty sure they are working on another project besides DK and maybe they are looking for people to add to that team while the DK team start on DK 3D :P

I refuse to believe they're having trouble meeting Tropical Freeze's already-delayed-by-three-months deadline when its not much more than a Wii game in HD, and they've been free to work on it since November of 2010.

Sorry, but unlike San Andreas and Vice City, Metroid Fusion really is numbered, just like Super Metroid was officially referred to as Metroid 3. ^_-