Retro Studios has officially signed on Dylan Jobe as the director of development for Metroid Prime 4. Jobe has a rather illustrious career in the game development industry. His pedigree includes working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, Twisted Metal: Black, and directing cult classic PlayStation 3 shooter Warhawk.
Metroid Prime 4 has had a painfully long and torturous development period. The game, a successor to Nintendo's iconic Metroid Prime trilogy, was first announced at E3 all the way back in 2017. Details were kept very scarce following the initial teaser, but it was confirmed to the surprise of many that Retro Studios, the development team behind the original trilogy, would not be working on the new game. Its absence from E3 2018 raised eyebrows, and set fans up for disappointment half a year later when, in January 2019, Nintendo announced that the entire game had been scrapped, and that the whole project would be restarted from scratch with Retro Studios at the helm.
Retro has been Halo creator Kyle Hefley, who will be working as the lead character artist. As the team's new director of development, Jobe will be responsible for the quality of the game, as well as the production schedule. He'll also be coordinating different facets of the studio and ensuring that the development team has everything it needs to keep production running smoothly.
It has now been 13 years since the last game in the Metroid Prime series. Fans still haven't seen any actual gameplay from Metroid Prime 4. Hopefully the efforts of Dylan Jobe will help get the project back on track, and fans can look forward to finally getting real news sometime soon. Recently, a retailer listing hinted that Metroid Prime 4 would be released this October, which seems cartoonishly optimistic, especially since Retro is still hiring more employees for the project.
A game is better off delayed than released with huge, glaring flaws, and Nintendo and Retro Studios do deserve commendation for recognizing this philosophy and sticking to it. At the same time, fans have been waiting for a while now. Retro's been working for almost two years and Metroid enthusiasts have basically nothing to show for it. On one hand, the development cycle for Metroid Prime 4 has been highly unusual, and Retro Studios can hardly be blamed for needing extra time to catch up. On the other hand, the game has to release sometime. Hopefully, with the help of Dylan Jobe and the other talent Retro has been hiring, Metroid Prime 4 will be coming sooner than fans dare to hope.
Source: VGC
