Nintendo assures gamers ‘a great console experience is coming’ with Metroid Prime 4

At Nintendo’s E3 2017 presentation, the Japanese giant showed a brief clip announcing Metroid Prime 4 (TBC) is in development for the Nintendo Switch. As to be expected, Nintendo fans rejoiced worldwide.

Previously, Nintendo had been quiet on the Metroid front, refusing to give away even the slightest of detail. With the E3 reveal, Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, told Polygon that, “we wanted to make it clear that Metroid is an important franchise for us.”

Fils-Aime went on to add: “As we think about how to satisfy the needs to the Metroid fans, we needed to make sure they understood there was a great console experience coming, in addition to Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) coming on Nintendo 3DS.”

At the Nintendo Treehouse after the presentation, Nintendo went on to announce that the Nintendo 3DS will receive a side-scrolling platformer, Metroid: Samus Returns. The decision not to talk about Metroid: Samus Returns during the presentation was to both keep focus on the Switch and allow ample time to show-off Metroid: Samus Returns with developer commentary, with Fils-Aime adding: “we’ve learned through lots of experience that the consumer wants to get that upfront information on the console experiences.”

This also assuages concerns that the portability of the Nintendo Switch will make the Nintendo 3DS line redundant and, as such, Nintendo will focus less on developing games for the platform. Fils-Aime went on to say: “That’s why we wanted to make sure it was clear that it wasn’t one or the other, that we were going to support both of our platforms with a great new Metroid experience.”

Metroid: Samus Returns releases on 15th September with Metroid Prime 4 still in active development.