Metroid Emerges From The “Dread”?

Back in 2005, a list of Nintendo’s internal software was leaked to the world. While all but one of those titles have seen the light of day, Metroid Dread for the DS has completely dissapeared without mention. Metroid Dread was supposed to be a true 2D Metroid classic, following heavily in the footsteps of Super Metroid. Of course, with so many other Metroid projects since produced, it was easily assumed to be canned somewhere along that way. That is until a routine scan in Metroid Prime 3 revealed a very interesting easter egg, which seems to be pretty straightforward and bold:

Experiment status report update. Metroid project “Dread” is nearing the final stages of completion.

We can only speculate on how close that would be. But from the exact wording of the scan, it seems pretty unlikely that Retro would simply tease fans in such a fashion. Could Metroid Dread possibly be a surprise holiday title? Considering how long it’s been in development, it certainly can’t be far off.