It's too tough to say, given that we don't know when Switch 2 will release. If Nintendo makes a crazy decision and launches Switch 2 in early 2023, then Metroid Prime 4 will be cross-gen or only on Switch 2. But if Switch 2 doesn't come out until 2024, I'm pretty sure MP4 will come to Switch.

Considering how great Switch is doing, it would probably be wiser to have it launch with their next console, sort of like Zelda usually does.

Crysis 2 Remastered on Switch shows massive gains over the Playstation 3 variant.
- Improved Lighting. - Voxel based global illumination. Aka Ray Tracing.
- Improved Colour Grading.
- Significantly improved textures.
- Significantly improved framerates. - PS3-360 are 12-30fps. Switch is locked 30.
- Improved AA.
- Higher Resolution.
- Parallax Occlusion Mapping.
- Improved Texture Filtering.

There is your 5 times more power. Just the Ray Tracing shows it is leagues ahead.




The Switch isn't specifically "5x more powerful" in raw paper specs compared to the PS3. Well. Not all of them anyway, some are less, some exceed it greatly I.E Ram capacity.
But the hardware is far far far more efficient, so it can do more work overall.
For all the circle-jerking about Cell, the Switch's 1Ghz triple core ARM CPU's are faster. That's progress for you... Proof is in Crysis 2 when you engage A.I... Framerates don't plummet.

The fact the hardware has tessellation, improved texture compression, normal map compression, delta colour compression, shader model 5, compute Shaders, conservative rasterization, volume tiled resources, voxel ray tracing via VXGI, mesh shaders and many many more... It shows that GPU technology has evolved in leaps and bounds over that time period... From the DX9 feature sets that defined the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 hardware to Direct X 11 that defines the technology in the Switch.

Which is why the Switch is able to receive technically impressive ports like the Witcher 3, Doom, Wolfenstein and others... Which just based on Ram capacity alone, would look like garbage on 7th gen hardware, WiiU included.

That doesn't mean the Switch is as capable as the Xbox One/Playstation 4, far from it... It can't even get into sniffing distance of the Xbox Series S. But one thing it has proven with titles like Links Awakening, Metroid Dread, Luigi's Mansion 3, Crysis 2 Remastered, Doom, Wolfenstein, Witcher 3, Astral Chain... It's definitely a step up over 7th gen hardware.

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Back to being on topic... I honestly hope that Metroid Prime 4 doesn't release on Switch, I would rather it release on Nintendo's next gen hardware, with a larger scope, better visuals.
Metroid Dread had pretty good visuals, but I want *more*. Super Metroid blew me away back in the 90's... I want to be impressed.

I assume you were simplifying to give people an idea of what that global illumination implementation is doing.  It’s certainly something that could be considered as a step towards ray tracing without the big frame rate penalty.

https://docs.cryengine.com/plugins/servlet/mobile?contentId=19377157#VoxelBasedGlobalIllumination-CurrentLimitations

I guess as far as the idea of Metroid Prime 4 being held back to be better on a new system, for me it depends on whether there’s potential to introduce any new mechanics or possibilities that will greatly improve the game.  I really don’t mind if it looks like a modern version of Metroid Prime 3 that isn’t obviously pushing the Switch to its limits.  If it’s advancing what gameplay can be experienced with a Switch version then I’m happy.

If it also proves successful enough to get an improved port to a more powerful system then I’m even happier.

Metroid Prime 3 looked stellar despite being stuck on Wii. I have no doubt Retro can do the same with MP4 on Switch. We all know the real reason for the delay.


Cranky Kong is being put in the game. That kind of perfection takes time.

MP4 will come to Switch regardless of whether its a launch title for their next console. The cost incurred on this project must be on the higher end of the scale, especially as it required a full restart. Nintendo will certainly want this available to the 100 plus million switch owners

I don't know how screenshots show anything about power. On the other hand I never would say something like five times the power, as things are way more difficult than this. Benchmarks would, but it is very difficult. We have some hard data though. PS3 had 512 MB RAM, Switch has 4 GB RAM. So 8 times the memory. On the other hand Switch uses cartridges with limited memory, while PS3 used BluRay, which in most cases offered more storage. So you can expect compression of assets like textures or audio on Switch. Power of CPU and GPU is much harder to gauge. We may have to use games, but I think screenshots can be misleading, they may show though the compression I already mentioned. PS3 and Switch shared a few games. Dark Souls has a much higher resolution on Switch, on PS3 it had less than 720p, on Switch dynamic resolution up to 1080p. Frame rate is also better on Switch. That's multiple time the performance.

So overall it is clear that Switch is in most area more powerful than PS3. The area most lacking on Switch is the storage.

To the thinking that the game should skip the Switch and launch on the next Nintendo console to have better graphics... I mean, I get what you are saying... but I'm absolutely certain Retro Studios can make MP4 look yaw dropping on Switch. Luigi's Mansion 3, Astral Chain, Breath of the Wild (and that's a port), Metroid Dread, Super Mario Odyssey... None of these might have the graphical complexity of, let's say, Horizon Forgotten West. But it's undeniable that they look great regardless: they look beautiful, plain and simple. Considering that and what Retro managed to pull off at rock solid 60fps con both the GC and Wii, I have no doubts that they will make MP4 look amazing regardless of the platform.

Those of us saying it should be a Switch 2 launch title are saying it will be a massive leap forward in visuals, so much so that it wouldn't be possible to make a Switch 1 port. Switch 2/1 is not going to be the same situation as Switch 1/Wii U with all the ports because the hardware, I believe, will be a lot better.

If you want to wait another 5 years then because that's when that will happen if they drop all work for the Switch version and start from scratch on Switch 2 version assuming Nintendo even has prototype dev kits of it now.