An interview with Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe indicated that no new home console Metroid title is in the works, and a new one is probably a few years out from now. “If we started for Wii U now,” Tanabe noted, “it would likely take three years or so. So it would likely now be on Nintendo’s NX console.” Thus, it appears that Metroid Prime: Federation Force is as close as fans will get to enjoying the Metroid Prime universe once more, at least for a while. The problem, Tanabe noted, is that he hasn’t been able to scrounge up enough resources or even a team to begin development on a new title: “It’s a long time, but it would need to include a lot of content, which would take a lot of work on the development side.”
Games are expensive to make and produce, and, unfortunately, Tanabe has not received the support for a go-ahead for any new extensive Metroid Prime project. When asked about potentially working with Retro Studios on a new title, as was done on development of the other titles in the Prime series, Tanabe said, “I’m not thinking about anything like that right now. We have nothing to announce on working with any specific team.” This could potentially help in terms of gaining support on his project, especially since he noted, “Truth be told, making HD games takes a lot of time and resources.” But it appears he would rather keep this one in-house.
It appears he has some interesting ideas for one: “Instead of broadening it to more planets I would have one and would focus on the timeline, and being able to change that. That’s one interesting idea I have in mind… but I understand many people thought that [Echoes] was too difficult.” He also said that he would be interested in taking Sylux from Metroid Prime: Hunters and creating a story with him in it. A time-shifting mechanic would be a great starting place from which many different puzzles could spring from, much like how the Light World/Dark World mechanics worked in Metroid Prime: Echoes.
Still, this interview reveals that fans are going to have to wait to get a new Metroid console game, or at least one in the Prime series. Yoshio Sakamoto, as “the one in charge of Metroid itself,” could potentially have some new projects in mind, but none that Tanabe was aware of. Let’s hope Nintendo can allocate resources to the Metroid Prime team for a new Nintendo NX title in the series. If the fan reaction to Federation Force is any indication, they may just do that.
