“Metroid Prime” Producer On Balancing Hardcore and Casual Audiences

The Metroid franchise may have some of the most critically acclaimed games ever, but Nintendo has let the franchise go dormant for years on end.

When Metroid Prime 4 was announced in 2017, fans lost their minds, but news on the game went silent until Nintendo announced it was restarting production on it. The upcoming fourth entry will be handled by original trilogy developers Retro Studios.

Since then, news on the game has been lacking again, with hiring updates popping up here and there.

However, Metroid producer Kensuke Tanabe provided a slight brief update on the coveted Prime 4. When being interviewed by VGC, Tanabe made a statement on how he wants to balance the hardcore and casual gaming audience.

“Nintendo’s philosophy on game creation is that we don’t ignore casual players in creating our games. This is also true for games such as those in the Metroid Prime series; games that at first glance look like they are only aimed at core gamers. With that in mind, what we’ve done in the Paper Mario series is to put a lot of work particularly into the puzzle-solving elements of the games, so that they can also be enjoyed by core users.”

Tanabe on Nintendo balancing the casual and hardcore gaming audience

Metroid has historically never sold as well as Mario or Zelda, but they are considered pioneers of game designs. While the above statement may not seem like much, it does demonstrate the approach Nintendo is currently taking with their franchises, including a potential future Metroid.

The Nintendo Switch has been selling very well, with a lot of their franchises reaching their sales peak. One of the reasons why this is happening is because the system is attracting a diverse audience of casual and hardcore gamers. Metroid has the potential to see its best numbers yet if it can manage to attract the Switch‘s diverse audience.

Source: Nintendolife