If only there was a way for game studios to advertise job listings without fans seeing it... Metroid Prime 4 developer Retro Studios sure wishes this was the case after their latest round of job openings sparked fearsome backlash from fans of the beloved Nintendo staple.
Much like when job openings are available at studios like Rockstar or Activision Blizzard, there is a ton of scrutiny that takes place and often it always results in anger regarding an ongoing project.
Metroid Prime 4 still years away?
The aforementioned job listings from Retro Studios include positions such as Concept Artist, Environmental Artist and Character Artist.
These all come across as fairly important positions to fill and it's unknown whether or not Retro currently has people in the role or multiple positions per role. If not, it could mean that development as a whole is being slowed until the positions are filled.
Fans have flooded this tweet with negative feedback wondering why such positions are unfilled with the game has been in development for years. It's worth remembering that the game did apparently suffer a reset that saw all progress scrapped and development started again from scratch under Retro Studios. It was previously being developed by Bandai Namco Japan/Singapore in a collaborative effort.
In one of the more damaging comparisons, there are now people throwing Duke Nukem Forever into the mix. That, however, feels needlessly unfair given that we're no way near that territory.... yet.
When is Metroid Prime 4 expected to release?
Neither Nintendo nor Retro Studios have stuck their necks out to provide a potential release date for Metroid Prime 4. Given that the last round of hirings Retro Studios did was based mostly around storyboarding, it may be safe to say that the game is at least past pre-production for now.
As for when it will be finished, that's a complete guessing game and we wouldn't dare hazard a guess at anything too specific. We would, however, suggest that we may be looking at 2024 at the earliest unless business picks up very soon.