Metroid Prime Remastered was originally rated 18 months ago

Been sitting on this one for awhile

12 February 2023
by rawmeatcowboy 4
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As you no doubt know, rumors of Metroid Prime Remastered’s existence have been around for years now. The rumors have been flying about almost as long as the Switch itself! Now that the game is finally out and the rumor is confirmed, those same fans have been wondering just how long Nintendo was sitting on the game.

While we may never know the definitive answer, we do have a little bit of insight. It’s been discovered that the German Ratings Board has a listing for Metroid Prime Remastered, but they’ve been sitting on it for quite awhile. The listing shows that Metroid Prime Remastered was originally rated over 18 months ago!

Now whether Nintendo planned to release the game 18 months back or not is up for speculation. You’d have to think that both the delay of Metroid Prime 4 and COVID led to all sorts of calendars changes, and Metroid Prime Remastered was likely included in that. All that matters now is that the game is finally available!

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Comments (4)

kuribo

1y ago

It’s not uncommon for games to be rated several months before release, but not 18 months.
However, since this is a remaster and as such the content and themes of the game remain the same, it’s possible the remaster was rated based on the existing GC and Wii versions content.

If the remaster was pretty much done as far back as 18 months ago then that gives hope for Metroid Prime 4 sooner rather than later.

Edited 1 time

tendonin

1y ago

Since games are on 3-4 year development cycles, companies remain in the shadow of the pandemic and have to consider their whole release schedules accordingly. This makes a degree of sense…though I’m not sure why they picked a surprise release in a month with another remake coming out. Whatever, it was always going to come out and now it has.


kingbroly

1y ago

What I'm more curious about is why they've released it when they did. A digital shadowdrop and 2 days physically before Kirby. Why not the same day as Kirby? Frankly, it doesn't sit right with me.


bakfug

1y ago

@tendonin

I don't agree that any of it makes even a degree of sense. Since game companies generally have their games rated about 2 to 4 months before release, we have to assume they sat on a finished game for more than a year, had no problem splitting the digital and physical release on separate dates meaning they could have released it any time regardless of physical production schedule, and released the same day as announced in a month that is packed with releases including what will be a more popular first party release. It really is an awful strategy.

My only guess is that MP4 has a pretty concrete timeline finally and now can stagger 1, 2, and 3 remasters ending with the launch of 4. But that's also a very lofty hope.

That being said, it seems to be working somehow because it immediately shot up to number one on the best seller in the US, the only place where it has any chance of selling well.