The first Metroid Prime game is “clearly finished” as of this summer, according to industry insider Emily Rogers. Rogers made the statement on her own Twitter account, adding that she hopes the entire trilogy will make it to the Nintendo Switch — but she’s confident the first game is ready to go. In a separate tweet, she said that a remaster of the first Metroid Prime has been in development since 2017 or 2018. The original plan was to release the first Prime and use that as a basis for Prime 2 and 3.
Rogers also said that nobody is sure whether these plans have been changed or scrapped completely after COVID, but reiterated that development for the first Metroid Prime game wrapped up over the summer. Rogers has a long record of providing accurate Nintendo-related information, making her claims potentially more legitimate.
It’s highly likely some kind of Prime remaster is in development. The last release of a Prime game was Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in 2007 for the Wii. The trilogy received a complete release on the Wii titled Metroid Prime: Trilogy in 2009, which also saw a release on the Wii U’s Nintendo eShop. Metroid Prime 4 was announced in 2017, but development was later restarted completely, reportedly switching from Bandai Namco to Retro Studios.
It’s almost been five years since the initial announcement, and three since development was announced to have restarted, so it makes sense Nintendo will want to fill in the gap with a remaster. Metroid Dread certainly will have renewed interest in the series, and a Prime remaster would prepare people for the release of Prime 4.
With the sequel to Breath of the Wild supposedly coming out next year, it’s unclear if we’ll see anything of Prime 4 at any Nintendo Direct’s next year. The pandemic has made game development difficult across the board, so we’ll have to wait and see what actions Nintendo has taken when we get an official announcement.
