It has now been almost exactly seven years since Nintendo first announced Metroid Prime 4 and over five years since the company said it was restarting work on the game with series mainstay Retro Studios. Nintendo kept its promise that “There will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor” during today’s Nintendo Direct presentation, but a major first-party franchise game launching in 2025 definitely seems well-positioned to serve as a showcase for new hardware that Nintendo seems to be planning for around the same time frame. Metroid Prime 4 also seems like a prime candidate to be the kind of “Bridge game” that Nintendo sometimes launches across an aging console and its replacement hardware simultaneously.

Source: Seven years later, Nintendo proves Metroid Prime 4 still exists

Seven years is a long time. I still have several Metroid games in my backlog so… I’m fine with waiting. It’s a great series.

Yet, it’s also fairly unpopular. It doesn’t sell in the same numbers as Mario and Zelda. I have strong doubts that they’d try to “pull a Breath of the Wild” and launch on both console generations with it being one of the only launch window games. Zelda can do that. Mario can do that. Metroid? Well, it’s fine if they release two editions (Switch and Switch 2) but I don’t think it makes to depend on it to sell the new hardware like they would with Zelda. I mean, Metroid barely sells in Japan, as far as I know.

Just my $0.02.