Cheers. Ok that's a very telling interview - he seems genuine about no game being in development at that time. I was certain Retro would be working on it already, since we don't know what they've been up to since Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze (or do we?).

So no Metroid before 2018, that's one down from the killer launch year lineup I was expecting for NX. Zelda will be cross release like TP was. 3D Mario might not make it for launch (holidays '16 will be 3 years from 3D World's launch, which is tight, considering NX is an all new system). Splatoon won't take as long, but still the original was too recent. Maybe Smash, surely not Mario Kart. 2D Mario will get a rest for some time, people are tired of it, and Mario Maker kinda reset the whole concept. Similarly 2D Donkey Kong seems due for a break. Maybe Pikmin, which doesn't move any systems though. Not Paper Mario, they just unveiled the Wii U game.

What else could they be working on? F-Zero, after the tease in MK8? A proper Animal Crossing? 

Wow what a bunch of bitter old gamers in here..

Jesus sounds like the world is going under with all this hate.

Fire Emblem Awakening is the highest selling FE game ever selling almost 2 million copies with Fates tracking close in the same timeframe. Metroid Prime sold close to 3 million, while Metroid Prime and Other M sold under 1.5 million, Metroid Prime 3 sold close to 2 million, and Metroid Prime Trilogy just over 600,000. You need to take into account development costs between the franchises as Fire Emblem and Metroid with the latter having its most recent titles release on home consoles while the former released on handhelds.

So, I guess Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn't count, then? XD

That's nearly 10 million in sales from Metroid, with 3 games developed on the same engine and one being a re-release with updated controls.  The games more than cover their costs and profited, especially on a low install base on the GC and with a small audience for the series.  If the pitiful Star Fox can get a AA level game, they can definitely push the boat out with Metroid on NX.

It is surprisingly low though, I thought Metroid games had sold better. It seems such a popular and much-talked-about series. Sales aren't bad per se, but I imagine Nintendo treated them as flagship titles, spent a lot of development money and expected more in return. 

It's unfortunate that Other M went down so badly with the fanbase, I thought it was great (could never get into the Prime games cause I'm FPS incompetent). That game surely lost a lot of money and brought the franchise to a screeching halt. If the fans wanted more Metroid games maybe they should have supported Other M. 

While it's not flagship, according to this site, each mainline Metroid has sold roughly one million copies each.  It is indeed niche, sadly.  

It's hard to support something you know isn't very good.  What sucks is insted of sending the message "we don't like this game", Nintendo sees "this series isn't popular anymore".  

That's the thing, the hate for Other M was absolutely disproportionate. It was a very polished game, high production values, and you could tell they wanted to make something unique. But it caught flak like Aliens: Colonial Marines or something, like it was broken and bad. Maybe it was just different.. but I realize this is highly subjective. And I often like things nobody else likes :D I like SMB2 and the beginning of Twilight Princess, and Double Dash and the gibberish voiceover in Zelda games. 

I loved the gameplay of Other M, with the excption of the OP dodge mechanics and shoehorned motion controls(the first person "find the pixels the devs were thinking of").  I think what people hate is the story and character portrayal of Samus.  And Double Dash is the best damn Mario Kart ever.  It sucks that they ruined the series with item spam but as a party game DD is king of Mario Kart.

Yeah combat was a bit strange, but it made much more sense than I thought it would (auto-aim sounded awful, but it wasn't, somehow).

And the pixel hunts were far and between, I can only remember a handful. Weird moments, I agree, because they'd interrupt the flow, but it felt a bit like point & click adventures (which is a good thing in my books). Also I wonder what the same people thought of the necessity to scan every environment in the Prime games, how's that not annoying. 

Samus' Character, I'll give them that. I'm not so sensitive to that cause I wasn't a huge Metroid fan before. 

Double Dash, yes! Still the most satisfying driving mechanics of the series. Even the item spam could be super fun, when you littered the tracks with big banana peels from the 2 kongs (and bananas would not disappear as they sadly do in newer MK games). Baby Park isn't half as fun on Wii U either without the big Koopa shells.