Metroid Prime 4 Release Date Gets a Lot More Real With Nintendo Reveal

It’s been over a year since Nintendo first revealed that Metroid Prime 4 was happening (watch the spine-tingling teaser embedded above) without offering any sort of concrete release date for the Nintendo Switch title. Now, the game’s launch feels a lot more certain thanks to a recent statement from Nintendo of America chief Reggie Fils-Aimé.

Speaking to Mashable, Fils-Aimé dropped a new hint that about the tentative release date for Metroid Prime 4, a long-awaited sequel to the popular sci-fi video games series starring intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran.

“Internally, we have expectations about when [Metroid Prime 4] is going to be released,” Fils-Aimé said. “We haven’t announced it, but yeah, the game is well in development.”

That’s not much, but it’s a lot better than the initial reveal, when the words “Metroid Prime 4” simply flashed across the screen, promising that the game would launch eventually. Some day.

However, Fils-Aimé also admitted that since Nintendo isn’t tied to a yearly release cycle like some other video game developers, there’s still no guarantee when Metroid Prime 4 could release — and nothing stopping Nintendo from delaying it internally.

“If a game isn’t ready, we will push out the development in order to make sure that it is as strong as possible when the game launches,” he said. “During my tenure with Nintendo, we’ve pushed back development a number of times on key games — in the end, it’s always worth it.”

One thing is for certain, when Metroid Prime 4 does finally arrive, it will be an iconic entry in the long-running video game series.

“Our goal with every system is that we launch an iconic execution within a particular franchise,” Fils-Aimé said. “It needs to be exceptionally compelling because we plan on selling it for a very long time.”

As for a specific release date, the 2018 holiday season is clearly spoken for with Smash Bros. Ultimate and Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee and PIkachu, but perhaps if we’re lucky a year from now we’ll all be lining up to get our hands on Metroid Prime 4.