A somewhat bittersweet apology and explaination from Nintendo Co. Ltd’s CEO, Shinya Takahashi:

According to Mr. Takahashi, whoever was previously working on Metroid Prime 4 has provided Nintendo with unsatisfactory results. This has caused Nintendo do what they did with the first Metroid Prime and “Up end the tea table” which basically means they’re starting from scratch.

I know a lot of fans will also be both surprised and greatly satisfied to find out that Nintendo is giving development back to Retro Studios, the original studio that created the Metroid Prime Trilogy. It gives me great pleasure to know MP4 will be developed back in my town of Austin, TX. That being said, Retro Studios has literally none of the same leadership of the original games currently working at the studio. This includes people like former producer Bryan Walker, game director Mark Pacini, design directors Karl Deckard, Mike Wikan, Lead Artist Todd Keller, and engineering leads Jack Matthews and Andy O’Neil. One would hope the talent currently working at the studio is prepared to handle a next-gen Metroid Prime that will push the Switch’s hardware to its limit.

Big downside of course is an added wait to an already long wait. My realistic prediction is we won’t get anything until 2021 now, (maybe nothing more than a teaser trailer) which will be very close to the Switch’s twilight years. And 2022 may be when it’s released. Maybe longer, who knows? All we can do at this point is provide our support and hope for the best. Of course we will keep you up to date on all the latest and greatest Metroid news. Stay tuned.