But the cost of making Prime 4 was magnitudes higher than any previous. Prime 4 sales were not good enough.

Why make Prime 5 when they could make pretty much any other IP Nintendo owns, for less money and sell more.

lol, The game is good. If you want a *bad Nintendo game. Code Name Steam. Zelda Phantom Hourglass. Mario is Missing. Wii Music. Mario Tennis Ultra Smash. Sing party. Pilotwings Resort. Pokemon Rumble U. Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival. Any Mario party ever. Not to mention the actual worst Metroid. Metroid Prime: Federation Force. Oh and Other M exists.


As someone who has played Metroid since the very first on NES. People overhate and overreact to Prime 4. It's a very good game and a fun one.

Who cares about Nintendo, the only thing they know to do is to create silly games for kids.
The only series i really liked is Xenoblade Chronicles.

Look at Mr. Mature over here. Hes SOOO cool.

I’m a little surprised Nintendo hasn’t closed Retro Studios yet. Perhaps I’m being a little cynical here, but the studio seemed like a burden more than an asset.
1. Reports of low morale, and bad experiences from ex-staff members.
2. A meagre release schedule.

It seems probable that they haven’t been living up to the standards of Nintendo. But Nintendo couldn’t close them without some controversy.

While I suspect there is some potential issues with NOA or the industry at large (I’m not sure), the most visible problem is that shareholders see Retro has this cult-like fanbase. This fanbase seems under the impression that Retro studios have this magical expertise that they have not been given the opportunity to use in 20 years… forgetting that Metroid Prime 3’s mediocrity already demonstrated that Retro weren’t the same team anymore. Why? The only thing I can come up with are people that think that being American or having the Retro label gives the studio, no matter who staffs it, some innate and unique quality of expertise in FPS games…

And again, perhaps this is cynicism, or perhaps I’ve been playing too much grand strategy (and CBs/justification forging), but my assumption about Metroid Prime 4 was that it was a public humiliation by Nintendo, who knew that even if they gave Retro all the resources they needed (which were stated in public), that they would fail to live up to the expectations of the project… this would pop Retro’s overinflated reputation, and Nintendo would close this studio down… Retro has seemed like a financial, culturally negative, and time/logistical burden for Nintendo. Given Nintendo is about to raise the western prices of the Switch 2, we’re in the window when they could announce a Retro studio shutdown with no significant controversy.

Add that if Metroid Ravenous is a new game (not a Prime 4 expansion) and crushes Prime 4 in reception, that would be so much overkill that people might celebrate Retro’s burial ceremony.

In short: Shareholders under the illusion of Retro’s ability (assuming it’s similar to the fans), Nintendo gave Retro a public last chance that would be unforgivable to fail, Nintendo knew Retro (even with costly extra support) would fail, the shareholders might celebrate Retro getting the slap chop. And just in case Metroid Prime 4 turned out decently, Nintendo had Metroid Ravenous in the pipe as a point of comparison to show their other dev studios were superior at the franchise Retro was best known for.

Of course, maybe I’m wrong, maybe Ravenous is a Metroid Prime 4 expansion. Perhaps Nintendo has plans on heavily investing in this studio even further to actually try to fix what looks to be broken. (Just giving alternatives, my assumption is the above paragraph based on the evidence).

The same could be said for many Nintendo IPs. It's not like Yoshi/Xenoblade/FE are historically  huge sellers

But as far as Prime 4s cost, part of that will be due to the development struggle from first being outsourced to Bandai Namco & that can be avoided in future. Elsewhere they can scale back on cinematic/VO etc.

If Metroid Prime remastered didn't cost a huge amount and has fidelity not too far from 4, they can easily make Metroid Prime 5 in a reasonable budget and appeal to a different demo than their usual Nintendo IP. Nintendo has continually valued it's diversity otherwise things like Fire Emblem & Xenoblade would long ago been shelved with their sub 2m sales lol