In the gaming world, a certain level of trust must be had between a developer and the gamer base. This is because when a new game is announced, especially one from a big-name franchise, gamers want to know it’s in good hands. When MercurySteam was announced as the team behind a 3DS remake of a classic Metroid title, fans weren’t sure what to make of it as they hadn’t really heard of them before. But the game was good, so Nintendo then let the team make Metroid Dread, and it was one of the best games of 2021.
Fast forward to now, and a rumor is circulating via a Spanish leaker who claims that MercurySteam is at it again and will have another 2D Metroid title out by 2025. We need to say that this is a rumor, but the person who leaked this did correctly identify the last Samus Aran title before it was officially announced, so make of this what you will:
Speaking objectively, it’s not hard to see Nintendo letting the dev team tackle another game with Samus, given the success of the previous two titles. The Switch game alone was a hit in terms of sales and became the best-selling title in the franchise! Not to mention, it got a bunch of awards and nominations from accredited people and organizations.
As some fans on Twitter and Reddit noted, they should let the team continue to strike while the iron is hot and love for the franchise is at a high point.
That brings us to the elephant in the room, Metroid Prime 4. The game was infamously announced in teaser form at the 2017 E3, months after the successful launch of the Nintendo Switch. The goal was to showcase that big-name titles were coming from all major Nintendo franchises. That goal was accomplished, but it came at a cost. About a year or so later, Nintendo revealed that the game was getting a redo from the ground up and would be made by Retro Studios.
Since then, we’ve heard nothing from the title, and Metroid Dread was announced and released before an update on the title was given. Some hope it’ll release this year, but that’s hard to justify, given the lack of updates.
Going back to the rumor, if the alleged 2D title were to release in 2025, it’s possible it would be on the next Nintendo platform to arrive.
Source: Twitter