The development team will also change. The creation of the fourth part will be handled by the American Retro Studios under the direction of producer Kensuke Tanabe.
In anticipation of the new part, fans of the series are making a remake of the first Metroid Prime on Unreal Engine 4
This became known from a public video by Shinya Takahashi, the chief executive officer of Nintendo.
In the video, the top manager apologizes. He explains that the project produced by the old team does not meet the standards of the company and the series.
If we are not satisfied with the quality of the project, we cannot safely provide it to our players, because the game will not meet their expectations.
Chief Executive Officer of Nintendo
Tanabe has held the position of producer of Metroid Prime 4 since the beginning of the project development. As for Retro Studios, it is an old partner of Nintendo. The studio was responsible for the first three parts of Metroid Prime, and then did Donkey Kong Country Returns and Mario Kart 7.
The restart story turns out to be, if not unprecedented, then close to it. Large companies rarely share such information publicly, preferring to close the project or start them over again without publicity. The reason is obvious. Companies do not want to disappoint shareholders, and with them the stock market.
On the other hand, Nintendo can afford it. Her sales of the recent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate turned out to be very high. As for 2019, only in the first half of it at least two more new internal products of the company will be released – Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Yoshi’s Crafted World. In other words, it has something to satisfy shareholders in the current reporting period.
So, by announcing the public transfer of Metroid Prime 4, Nintendo saved itself from possible pressure from the market, which could be initiated, among other things, by the expectations of fans of the series.