Metroid Prime 4 May Be Nintendo’s Most Expensive Project

Trilobit

Trilobit

Absolutely Cozy
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond may stand as one of Nintendo's most ambitious and costly projects to date, if a recent claim regarding its development budget proves accurate. According to Kiwi Talkz, a content creator known for interviews with current and former Retro Studios employees, the upcoming title has reportedly reached a budget of around 100 million dollars.
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On social media, Kiwi Talkz remarked, "Prime 1 cost about $10 million dollars to make, Prime 4 is costing about $100 million to make. This game needs to sell between 4.5 – 5 million to break even." When asked how the figure was obtained, he simply responded, "I've been told that." While the statement has not been corroborated by Nintendo, the suggestion alone has sparked significant discussion among fans.
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twistedvoxel.com

Metroid Prime 4 May Be Nintendo’s Most Expensive Project if Leaked $100 Million Budget Holds True

A leaker claims Metroid Prime 4 cost $100 million to make, raising questions about sales targets and Nintendo’s budget strategy.
twistedvoxel.com twistedvoxel.com

Mama mia if true! Horizon Zero Dawn cost around 50 million and Ghost of Tsushima 60 million.
 
Pulled it out of his ass but sure, why not, knowing it was restarted from scratch at least once could mean the cost essentially doubled, but that doesn't mean they expect the new iteration to cover for the old one, that work/cost is lost/wasted same as if they canned it and worked on another game.
 
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Seth Meyers Lol GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers
 
well, they sure are skimping on the marketing budget. Couldn't even get good trailer editor for it.

We could see a final epic trailer at TGA. I want to be hopeful.
 
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No they would never want or plan to spend 100m on Metroid but they had to reboot it and switch studios. They are counting from the first day, not from the reboot. And it's been a loooong time.

The alternative would be to cancel it or release a bad game, neither of which they wanted to do so they ate it.

Edit: maybe 100 is a bit excessive, but it does have the impression of a game they lost the most control over financially
 
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Meanwhile the Pokemon games on Switch are looking like a disaster with each new release and that franchise has the budget. Please stop the cap.
 
Game was stuck in development hell and passed around several times wasn't it? Wouldn't be that crazy of an amount, all things considered.

Also it cost a lot to put in that bike and barren landscape.
 
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It was like six years of development, right?

I believe it

But at the same time I believe that BotW was more costly - and the sequel that is basically a huge DLC makes even more sense
 
I doubt it's that high but I will say that as soon as they scrapped the original project and moved it to RETRO I was already thinking they'd never be breaking even on this one. It's definitely a project for the fans.
 
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Trilobit said:
twistedvoxel.com

Metroid Prime 4 May Be Nintendo’s Most Expensive Project if Leaked $100 Million Budget Holds True

A leaker claims Metroid Prime 4 cost $100 million to make, raising questions about sales targets and Nintendo’s budget strategy.
twistedvoxel.com twistedvoxel.com

Mama mia if true! Horizon Zero Dawn cost around 50 million and Ghost of Tsushima 60 million.
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I heard my profile avatar game, cost 100 million. I don't think it will be most expensive, maybe for metroid yes, for nintendo, might be not.
 
Doubt that very much.

It is probably Nintendo's most expensive project to date, given its been in the works in one form or another for over 8 years, but I seriously doubt it's that high, this isn't exactly a AAAA open world game with celebrity voice actors and photorealistic graphics.
 
It was announced 8 years ago and basically restarted from scratch in 2019. So this wouldn't surprise me. When games go through development hell they tend to get expensive.

$12.5m per year.
 
It's been rebooted at least once, maybe twice, doesn't surprise me that the total running bill is 100 million, especially since Retro is US based.

Maybe the cost for this iteration of it is 40-50 million.

It doesn't really matter if you believe the figure or not, we'll never actually know how much the game costed to make.
 
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Vaquilla said:
Doubt that very much.

It is probably Nintendo's most expensive project to date, given its been in the works in one form or another for over 8 years, but I seriously doubt it's that high, this isn't exactly a AAAA open world game with celebrity voice actors and photorealistic graphics.
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$100m really isn't at the top tier of development costs anymore, certainly not "AAAA". Horizon Forbidden West and TLOU Part 2 both supposedly had a development budget over $200m.

Battlefield 4 had a $100m budget back in 2013 when games were much cheaper to make.
 
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It has cost far more than $100 million counting the canceled and rebooted versions of it. Even Retro's portion alone far exceeds $100 million with an estimated 250 employees, and over 6 years in development at Retro. Total cost per head is likely approaching $200K/yr, Austin is only slightly less expensive than Commiefornia and Washington. In fairness they've probably done a lot of support work on other games and the entire studio hasn't been on Prime 4 for 6 years, but it has still cost and absolute fortune.
 
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More like 5000 yen and 100 cup of noodles.

I don't see nintendo spending nowhere near those money for any of their games.
 
This number might have been skewed by restarting development when they took it from Bamco and gave it to Retro.
 
Haint said:
It has cost far more than $100 million counting the canceled and rebooted versions of it. Even Retro's portion alone far exceeds $100 million with an estimated 250 employees, and over 6 years in development at Retro. Total cost per head is likely approaching $200K/yr, Austin is only slightly less expensive than Commiefornia and Washington. In fairness they've probably done a lot of support work on other games and the entire studio hasn't been on Prime 4 for 6 years, but it has still cost and absolute fortune.
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Came in for this. I don't know the average salaries at Retro but I imagine they are north of 100k/yr, which makes this number very believable.
Also I wouldn't assume all employees worked full time on this project since it was announced.

But even if roughly 100 developers at Retro were working on this at any given moment at an average salary of 150k/yr, that's already 90 million for six years. Add the work at Namco before rebooting, add other expenses like QA and marketing, etc.
 
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Metroid series isn't going to get that kind of budget from Nintendo.

Remember when Tetsuya Takahashi from Monolith Soft wanted similar budget as Zelda team and were laughed at by Nintendo top management and were asked if he could get similar sales as Zelda games.

30m max for MP4. Nintendo is very good at cost management.
 
Mownoc said:
$100m really isn't at the top tier of development costs anymore, certainly not "AAAA". Horizon Forbidden West and TLOU Part 2 both supposedly had a development budget over $200m.

Battlefield 4 had a $100m budget back in 2013 when games were much cheaper to make.
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Battlefield 4 was a pretty huge game built on a then cutting edge new engine and had 5 different versions, Prime 4 doesn't seem nearly that elaborate based on what we've seen so far.
 
Well no shit, they remade the whole game 2 or 3 times.

The final result wont look like an expensive project.
 
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pulicat said:
Metroid series isn't going to get that kind of budget from Nintendo.

Remember when Tetsuya Takahashi from Monolith Soft wanted similar budget as Zelda team and were laughed at by Nintendo top management and were asked if he could get similar sales as Zelda games.

30m max for MP4. Nintendo is very good at cost management.
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Do you think Nintendo's cost management planned to reboot it and switch studios years into development?
 
I doubt that number is even including the original game which was cancelled and the costs were incurred totally with a total loss.

This game, the one from Retro, was made in the US by an expensive team over a long period of time, nine figures is definite.
 
Nintendo revealed this game at E3 2017, 8 years ago. And it's unclear how long it was in any kind of production before that.

It could be about 10 years of bleeding.
 
kazuyamishima said:
+$40m. more than Tsushima or Yotei if true.
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But you watch, Metroid will receieve critical acclaim for how amazing it looks and pushing the under powered Switch.
Meanwhile Ghosts will receive thumbs down for not looking amazing enough on more powerful hardware. But still look superior to MP4.

NeoGaf never disappoints.
 
40 million at least for lawsuits against the Metro franchise and Id software for the illegal use of Metro and id
 
Hookshot said:
Thankfully Nintendo can have the odd mistake like this and not be financially in danger. Might not see any Metroid for another 19 years though.
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We got Samus Returns and Dread in between. There can never be enough Metroid.
 
I'm not sure. But it is more than possible. Prime 4 has been in development for at least 8 years. At least! Nintendo has not laid anyone off at retro. So yes, it is possible
 
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