After that, Nintendo had them start working on this project. It was designed from the beginning as a full asset remake of the original Metroid Prime Trilogy. They didn't want them making any changes to the design. They just wanted a 1:1 remake of the original games with new art built to modern standards. Down to them even reusing the original collision meshes and just replacing the art. They didn't want to mess with perfection. So this was never at any point a simple remaster of any of the games. They were always planned to be full remakes.
But it was only the art that was being rebuilt so that left their design staff with nothing to do. At the time, NOJ was having issues with Namco's work on Prime 4. Particularly the level design. So they started having the Retro design staff start helping with the level design on Prime 4. Meanwhile, art and programming staff were working on the MP1 Remake. After seeing the quality of Retro's level design work on Prime 4 and the quality of their art for the remake, NOJ decided, "Why are we not just having Retro do Prime 4 altogether?" So that was the point where they cancelled things with Namco and made the announcement they were rebooting things with Retro and put them back together with Tanabe.
So I think it was a few months after this or somewhere around then where the rumors about a MP trilogy first came out. I believe Imran Khan was first to "scoop it." However, what he reported was largely bullshit. He said the full trilogy was finished as a remaster and was just sitting around waiting to be released. Also, that Retro had secretly put a demo together to scoop MP4 from Namco. That was completely untrue. That is not how things work in this industry and definitely not how the relationship between Retro and NOJ works. This is not Spangleberg-era Retro where they're just secretly working on their own projects supposedly to steal projects from other studios. I feel like that was really irresponsible for Imran to claim that as that's a really bad look for Retro and is the kind of thing that creates bad blood. Retro are good guys and classier than that.
I privately messaged Imran back in early 2019 that his reporting was largely wrong. This was not a simple remaster. Work had not yet even begun on the later two games and this first game wouldn't be ready for some time. Also, that his statements about Retro sniping Prime 4 from Namco was completely untrue. It had been NOJ's decision and they were just following orders. Imran stopped responding to me as I guess rather than do his due diligence to correct any bad reporting he'd rather just let those bad rumors fly and soak up his fifteen minutes of fame. So instead these rumors about a Prime Trilogy being finished and waiting in the wings just kept circulating and getting reported by more people.
Before Retro got Prime 4 back they'd been planning for them to redo the whole trilogy. Obviously that was not going to be possible with them now doing Prime 4. So the new plan became for them to just finish up the first game, then Nintendo would contract out the work for the subsequent games to be redone by other studios with the Prime 1 remake serving to establish the visual bar and style for other studios to emulate. I don't know whether this is still the plan or if that work has even begun. I'm sort of doubtful. They've just barely finished up the work on Prime 1 just a few weeks ago. So this is definitely not something Nintendo has been sitting on for years and releasing them individually to nickel and dime everybody.
Retro has put a lot of work in to this project. They've seriously been working on it for years. I hope that can be appreciated. This is not one of Nintendo's usual quick minimalist re-release cash grabs. I think this is the kind of thing we want to see from them and should reward. That's why it irritates me that all this irresponsible reporting from years past is casting a negative shadow over it with people being led to believe Nintendo is just trying to take advantage of the fan base. Yes, that has happened from time to time, but this is not one of those cases. I don't know what the price point would ultimately be, but given the amount of work put into it I would fully expect it to be full price. Again, there's not any new added content to my knowledge but all the art assets have been completely rebuilt from the ground up a la Shadow of the Colossus/Demon's Souls remake. I have not seen the game running so I can't comment on the finished quality of the art remake, but I have heard it's impressive for what it's worth. So hopefully that clarifies the situation here.
Lo faro`.
