It would seem that Metroid Prime 4 is farther off than we think.
During the last Nintendo investors call meeting, some of the games for the Nintendo Switch had their launch dates confirmed, moved or downright placed into the dreaded ‘to be announced’ (TBA) pile. While we can expect games like Animal Crossing, Link’s Awakening or even Luigi’s Mansion 3 to be released this year, two of the more anticipated titles, PlatinumGames’ Bayonetta 3 and Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime 4 are still in a ‘to be announced’ status.
A recent post from Retro Studios on Twitter may shed some light into just how far development really is on Metroid Prime 4. The developer tweeted job listings this last Friday, for various positions involving game development.
Retro Studios is hiring! https://t.co/139BABLNWn @RetroStudios pic.twitter.com/33h6lw8t0g
— Retro Studios (@RetroStudios) April 26, 2019
Checking out the link, it seems that there are more than a handful of openings for Retro Studios, including:
- Art director
- Product tester
- Art outsourcing manager
- Level 3 IT engineer
- Level 1 gameplay engineer
- Lead external environment artist
- Lead character artist
- Lead cinematics artist
- Lead graphics engineer
- Level 3 engineer – AI
- Level 1 tools engineer
- Level 3 tools engineer
- Physics engineer
Looking at the listings it can be inferred that Metroid Prime 4 is still very early in development, if not in its earliest stages. Nintendo notably owned up to a past blunder, explaining that the first iteration of Metroid Prime 4 was scrapped. The game was, according to Nintendo Senior Managing Executive Officer Shinya Takahashi, facing a troubled development and that it was not living up to the company’s high standards. This did not come without a silver lining though, as it was revealed in the same announcement that Retro Studios, the series’ original developer of the Prime games, were now back in charge of development.
The job listings are all based in Texas as well, so if you happen to live in the area and are a top-notch developer, the postings should be of interest to you. It’s not everyday you can say that you have a chance to work with such a renowned developer, much less on a game like Metroid Prime 4, which is one of the Nintendo Switch’s most anticipated titles.
