Metroid Prime 3 Nonchalantly Delayed
In a press release for the Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, was a sad bit of news for Metroid Fans. Ever so sneakily, the news has been dropped by Nintendo that Metroid has in fact (as many suspected it would), been delayed. Now before you start burning your Wii in protest, know that the game has only been pushed back a single week, from the 20th of August to the 27th. The press release had this to say on the matter:
Metroid® Prime 3: Corruption, the third installment of the hit trilogy, launches with motion-sensitive controls exclusively on Wii™ on Aug. 27.
Something about the whole thing smells horribly fishy. Delaying a game a single week won’t have much of an impact on the final product. Sure it may mean one or two less sleepless nights for the dev team, but overall the product will not be changed. Apart from a mistake in the press release, the only possible solutions to the delay could be a need for some more production time, or a strategic move.
August 20th marks the official 20 year anniversary of the Metroid series, which is why Metroid Prime being pushed off for only a single week doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Quite a few products are releasing in the time frame, Nintendo may have needed a little more space, or perhaps they thought it would be a wonderful idea to make a week-long celebration. We can surely expect some of the classics to make their way to the virtual console in preparation, maybe Nintendo felt they would only be overshadowed by the new release. Either way, we are still without an answer from Nintendo, and now another week of sleepless nights waiting for the next big Nintendo project. It may not be the end of the world, but it is a little odd.