It’s been three years since Metroid Prime 4 for the Nintendo Switch was initially announced, and one year plus since its latest update in early 2019. Retro Studios (the original developer of Metroid Prime) restarted the project, and have been bolstering its ranks with new additions.

According to Video Games Chronicle, Retro Studios has recruited Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 veteran Bharathwaj ‘Bat’ Nandakumar since April 2020 as a lead engineer. Nandakumar had previously spent a decade at Activision working on every Call Of Duty: Black Ops entry to date; specializing in online, tools and gameplay programming.

According to his LinkedIn page, Nandakumar helped create the Theatre Mode in the original Call Of Duty Black Ops, which was notably the first time that a replay feature was introduced in the franchise. At the time of writing, the Retro Studios jobs page is still advertising for other roles, including lead animator and boss/AI designer.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Fv-O103Gw&w=560&h=315]

Other recent hires by Retro Studios include Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst and Battlefield V art director Jhony Ljungstedt, veteran Halo creative Kyle Hefley, New Super Lucky’s Tale and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze lead designer Stephen Dupree, Shadow of the Tomb Raider lead VFX artist Bryan Erck and former Gearbox Software dev Nicholas Wilson.

It remains to be seen when exactly we’ll be receiving more official updates or progress details on Metroid Prime 4. With Nintendo buckling up on Nintendo Switch and essentially giving up on fighting the next-gen console wars, we might be waiting a long time yet. I mean, look at Shin Megami Tensei V as well; who knows when we’re getting that game.