Development on Metroid Prime 4 has been rocky to say the least. However, Retro Studios hiring staff for the game may mean good news is on the way for this long awaited first-person adventure.
Metroid Prime 4 was first announced at E3 2017. Sometime after the announcement, Nintendo of America’s director of marketing Bill Trinen announced that Retro Studios would not be working on Metroid Prime 4. This despite the Texas-based developer having worked on the first three Metroid Prime titles.
Nintendo never actually announced a developer for Metroid Prime 4. That said, a report by Eurogamer pointed to Bandai Namco Studios as the game’s developer.
Whoever the developer was, the project took a turn for the worse sometime between then and January of this year. On January 25 Nintendo announced that Metroid Prime 4 had been delayed and that they had scrapped all previous work on it. More importantly, Retro Studios was once again working on the game.
With the announcement that the company is hiring, Retro Studios may be ramping up development on the game. The team’s careers page shows that they’re looking to fill a number of key positions. These include a number of posts related to the game’s art assets, including listings for an art director, lead external environment artist, lead character artist, lead cinematic artist, and more.
Retro Studios looking to fill these positions may indicate that whatever prototype build they have has gotten the thumbs-up from Nintendo. It wouldn’t make sense to hire additional artists after all if the if they were still working on an internal prototype.
That said, the fact that they’re just hiring now most likely means that they won’t have much to show for the short term. Metroid Prime fans should probably expect to wait a bit more for a glimpse of the new game.
In the meantime, anyone interested in applying should head on over to Retro Studios’ careers page.
