Aetheri
W/E happens don't panic...
Here's my stance on the possibilities of a Metroid Prime/Retro working on a Metroid game...It's always interesting to reflect how many Nintendo Switch games I feel have been hinted at so far.
As it turns out, it's quite a few. Aonuma mentions wanting to make a game where you play as a thief in one interview, then he mentions the 2D Zelda team working on their own revamped Zelda game in another. Pokemon Company mentions Pokken and Mystery Dungeon as possible filler titles to buy time until the later point that a proper Pokemon game can be made that fits the system. Reggie can name drop Smash Bros (and TBH that already feels like there's weird stuff surrounding it), or Reggie can mention they're making something as unorthodox as Brain Age was.
And of course, Retro's cooking up something and they won't say a peep what. Back when Tropical Freeze was wrapping up they actually said they were working on something new for them next. If that continued being made the whole time, I think a lot of people expecting them to make Metroid are going to be. . .ah. . .
But I also think a Metroid is happening ANYWAY because Reggie did a verbal wink wink at that too.
So I'm imagining a hypothetical scenario where a Retro game and Metroid are announced at E3 and they aren't the same thing.
There's so many different breadcrumb trails all over the place and every single one of them seems to lead to a different team than either the ones already busy or each other. It's not like Game Freak makes Pokken or Mystery Dungeon, both of those are outsourced to two different companies.
A lot of this stuff I feel isn't going to be heard about until 2018, but I do think E3 has the potential to be interesting in it's own ways if not too much time is taken up by known titles. . .That, and Year 2 looks like it's going to be quite the busy year for Nintendo if this is possibly just the start of it. Combined pipelines look like they're gonna start doing work in a little bit.
*EDIT* Yes, speculation. Nobody panic please. 3: Although prepping for the possible "Retro working on something other than Metroid" situation might actually cause less panic down the road.
It has been stated that Retro studios is indeed big enough to work on multiple projects and they've only alluded to one project being something they haven't worked on before, however it is also quite possible that later on they may have started working on something either shortly after Federation Force's reveal two years ago or after it's release last year (which likely means we may not see a Prime 4 until 2018 the earliest)...based on statements made by developers a Prime 4 hasn't even started development around e3 2015 (when Fed Force was revealed) and on average a Prime game takes about 3 years or so to develop, it's possible it may take even longer since Nintendo's at this 'let's take forever to make a game so it's actually good' phase, which isn't a bad thing but that just means more waiting...this is of course assuming that they even started working on a title which we have no clue if they are or not...
We won't see a Prime 4 for a little while, unless of course devs just lied to us and they're just waiting for the right moment to show it and release it shortly after (honestly we've had the 'right moment' several times at this point so I really don't see what's taking so long if that is the case)
With that said a Prime styled Metroid isn't the only possibility for Nintendo obviously...with the huge influx of indie Metroidvanias such as Axiom Verge (aka the "best Metroid game in years" according to a lot of fans) I do see it likely that Nintendo may have started working on a new 2D installment also...whether it's for the 3DS or perhaps an HD installment on the Switch...And of course there's also one other style Metroid game that tbh honest seems a lot less likely and that's a 3rd person Metroid...given how well Other M was received I'm not sure how willing Nintendo will be to take another stab at that unless they actually make an effort to give us a genuine Metroid experience...instead of opting for making an interactive movie...
Honestly I hope whoever's working on a Metroid game takes a look at Breath of the Wild's success, I'm not just talking 'huge epic open world' game (which would be awesome of course) but I'm talking about what it does for the player's experience...BotW much like Super Metroid allows the player to pretty much do what they want, story rarely affects gameplay and while you are given a sequence to follow if you so desire you can just do what you want instead...I've already pointed out some similarities BotW has to Metroid Prime, but taking a very similar approach in that the story is completely optional but yet still rewarding to acquire since it basically works like a collectible within the game...