Pokémon: Legends Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond to Still Release on the Switch 1 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 05 February 2025 / 6,630 Views
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa speaking during an investor Q&A has stated Pokémon: Legends Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will still release later this year on the original Nintendo Switch.
Pokémon: Legends Z-A was announced for the Nintendo Switch in February 2024. It will take place within Lumiose City in the Kalos Region, the same setting as Pokémon X/Y. The Z in the title is likely referring to the Legendary Pokémon Zygarde.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond years after it was announced got a first look at gameplay in June 2024.
Both games should be playable on the Nintendo Switch 2, as the console will support backwards compatibility with original Switch games.
Furukawa earlier this week stated the company will continue to support the original Nintendo Switch "as long as there is demand" even after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2.
He does not believe the announcement of the Switch 2 will have a significant impact on the current sales of the original Switch.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
More Articles
Pokemon should be just switch 2. Game freak are incapable of making a good optimise game on switch 1
Here's hoping for a stealth drop of MP2 and MP3 before MP4 comes out this year. I would love to be able to play through those two games before 4.
They need massive sales too! So a cross release is a no brainer
Switch 1 needs this one to be "exclusive", sorry people.
Make Metroid Prime 5 for Switch 2, now that Retro Studios is fitted again, after 20 years.
They will just need a pair of years to do another installment if they continue to work on Prime series, after the release of MP4: It was a crime to use Retro Studios to make new DK Countries all those years. Yeah, they can be good as 2D platforms, but fuck... Retro deserves mature focused games.
(I'm glad Nintendo cancelled the Bandai Namco Studios project for MP4: Bandai Namco is performing well as a publisher... but Bandai Namco Studios are just... fucking over. They are cooked. Bandai Namco would be smart to close them for good and just continue its policy to contract other studios, as they already do for its big anime franchises, and publish games from smaller companies).
Do not worry: none of those had a massive number of militant fanboys. Metroid Prime 4 have it. Maybe it will not be the graphical revolution MP1 was, but nobody expects or needs this in the last years of Switch. People will buy MP4 because it is Metroid Prime 4, made by the original studio.
Duke Nukem Forever was simply a joke when it finally was launched. During all those years, the FPS gaming changed an evolved SO MUCH. A revolutionary game for 1997... was just a meme by 2011. They basically changed the developers and they just made a new Duke Nukem Forever "from the 90s"... but with 2011 graphics. It was a Duke Nukem game... they had little possibility to change Duke character, totally out of fashion by then. Obviously, many teens in 1990s lost the interest to play a game VERY intended for the teens of the 90s... when they already were in its 30s. And teens in the 2011 were just playing other things and had 0 interest in Duke Nukem.
Perfect Dark Zero was victim of the Rare buyout (the traumatic separation among Rare and Nintendo). MS do not managed well that buyout. Not in the Xbox, neither in the 360. Rare fans were basically Nintendo users, and Rare failed to create a miningful Rare fan base in the MS consoles. Btw, I lost all my interest in that game by the 360 years.
Resident Evil Zero was ignored by the Resident Evil fans, cause it was a Gamecube exclusive game (it sold much better in its HD remaster, when appeared to PS platforms and PC, like 15 years later). If RE4 resulted in an exclusive game for Gamecube, as it was originally intended..., its impact would had been minimal.
Kameo suffered the same case of PD Zero, but even worse, cause it was a new franchise: Nobody cared about that "Kameo" thing in 360. That was a game planned for the Nintendo Rare fans of the N64 era, for the next console Gamecube. Out of place and time.
it also happened something similar with "Too Human", when Silicon Knights quitted from being a second party of Nintendo. In that case, the original project was for the PSX, but when SK went second party in 2000, every Gamecube user was expecting that game... even before the Gamecube was released. It ended as a huge disappointment and a flop, in the 360. And eventually, killed SK, because the legal problems the same SK started against Epic, pretending the game was bad because the Unreal engine used was bad. Epic decided to counter-sue them cause SK used Unreal engine code... inside its game code. Without permission or even naming them. SK lost both trials.
The Last Guardian... that last one is very interesting. The Last Guardian flopped for two reasons: it was expected many years before, FOR PS3, and eventually, skipped ALL that generation, from the start to the end. And then, the AI of Trico was just too bad for many players to be enjoyable. Many defined it as really frustrating, after being so many years in development. Also, the game was too ugly and with an "old" gameplay for a PS4 standards, because the project was so old... New games were just much more enjoyable.
And... to be fair, the Ico series never sold THAT well: Ico didn't sell too well as a PS2 game, but gained a masterpiece reputation in the media (a little too excessive, for my taste) probably because PS2 needed games to be hyped and worshiped in 2001, after the weak first year.
Shadow of the Colossus was a bigger success, because it was a very ambitious graphical project for a PS2, but even then, do not sold huge numbers. Its HD remaster/remake sold better in PS4.
So, The Last Guardian, as a triple A project, was always a huge risk, and eventually failed.
It won't be. Will be a CrossGen title. Several people who have Linked in profiles have listed working on two versions of MP4, and that both versions were optimized for 60fps play. Switch 2 will definitely have an upgraded version.
What makes you so sure?
Every Switch game will be cross gen due to backwards compatibility.
Maybe one year later.
I had been thinking MP4 and Legends:A-Z might be cross gen, but yeah given backwards compatibility and thinking about it more maybe they will both just be Switch games. I mean it would be nice for Metroid to get the extra press of being one of the first (potentially even a launch game) big games on Switch 2, but it wouldn't make sense unless the devs did serious work to provide a much more graphically advanced version for that.
And 3DS still got one Pokemon game after Switch launched so it's not out of character if A-Z is Switch. And since Switch 2 owners can play both games with BC that's fine. Game Freak needs to focus on just making a great Pokemon game, they don't need the extra work of trying to do a graphically enhanced next gen version at the same time.
Thats what i also think. I can see Pokémon Gen 10 Cross gen as well in late 2026 because they are not moving on to next gen hardware the same year. We have seen it with the DS as well.
That was clear from the beginning. Who seriously doubted that?! Finally all the fears and rumors MP4B could be canceled on Switch are officially debunked now! I am strting to think that MP4B will be Switch only but playable on Switch 2 with BC. Later there could be an enhanced port.
UPDATE
https://icon-era.com/threads/launching-exclusive-games-for-nintendo-switch-2-is-essential-for-its-success-according-to-the-president-of-nintendo-shuntaro-furukawa.15763/
Its extremly important that Switch 2 will get exclusive games but also Switch 1! He mentioned Pokémon ZA and METROID 4: BEYOND as examples!
Again my prediction was correct!!! Because this means MP4B will NOT be a cross gen title like many predicted!! I said it before and i was right again. So there will even be Switch 1 exclusives after Switch 2 launches! So much for "Switch 1 will die when Switch 2 comes out!"😉
Metroid Prime 4 Beyond will launch exclusivley on Nintendo Switch!!
They still launched Zelda games on GameCube and Wii U as their successors launched. So even if these games are cross-gen, it's bad business to cancel the Switch versions.
So, first real pokemon on switch 2 will be gen 10.
Yes, because these remakes are unlikely. It could be if it's announced in pokemon day this year for a release in January like with bdsp (ZA this time) and arceus (which would be these possible remakes). But since next year is the 30th anniversary, i don't see them skipping that year for gen 10.
I'm not sure what you mean by first real Pokémon?
Exclusive to next gen?
Because Pokémon has a long history of really taking its time before moving the next console lol
or are you only referring to proper mainline games?
If so, I hope they really take their time... PLA may have been unpolished, but it was 10x better/more interesting than SS or SV imo
Well, yeah, but before, the lack of mainline pokemon games was explained for a good reason. The reason it's not at launch on gba is because of crystal. The reason it's not at launch on ds is because of Emerald. The reason it's not at launch on 3ds is because of black and white 2 and for the switch it's because when the switch released, they were working on both usum and let's go. But This time, legends ZA has been announced last year, it could have been released in November and we could have had a pokemon mainline game on release year (To me, legends arceus and ZA are not mainline games, they're said to be to bring more sales since the biggest sellers of pokemon games are mainline games (Even third versions did better than any not mainline games back then) ).
While i understand your opinion, i think that it is mainly based on the fact that legends games do something new while SS and SV are merely doing the same old thing again, but technically worst than before (But to be honest, even sun and moon had technical issues, so...). I really like SV but grew tired of SS because of how boring it is to redo it as it is, for real, a straight line.
What i disliked in arceus was that it has no replay value because the main goal is to complete the pokedex, and in the most boring way. Let's see what they do with ZA.
Pokemon Switch 1 exclusive, Metroid cross-gen.
That's a shame. Prime is one of my favorite games, and Metroid is second for me only to Mario for Nintendo IP. I was hoping for it to take full advantage of the added power.
Are you gonna pay the revenue wich Nintendo will lose if they released it Switch 2 only? Are you willing to pay 100$ for the game (standard edition)? If you pay the cancelation and the full developement from the ground up for Switch 2, then Nintendo will do it. But you will get the anger of 155- 160 million Switch buyers because not only a few bought the Switch just for this game. And Nintendo would lose a lot of their reputation and trust if they did that. It was promised for Switch 1 so Nintendo will keep their promise! Anyway the game will be great and i am sure you will enjoy it anyway!😀
First off, there's no WAY 150+ million people care about Prime 4. That would be a 100% attach rate lol. Even Mario Kart won't do that. Second, I'm only speaking for myself here. If a new console comes out, it's hard for me to care about past gen games. Take God of War 2, for instance. I enjoyed the first game, but when Sony decided to launch that title after 360 and PS3 was on the market, it sort of fell on deaf ears. There were new consoles in our homes, new experiences to be had. Halo 3 was in the air. The only people I talked to who cared about GOW2 were those who hadn't upgraded yet. So again, it's a hard sell for me. The Switch was outdated tech the moment it launched. It's horrendously outdated now. I would have loved Prime 4 to be on their latest hardware instead. It's just how I feel.
I can understand GOW 2. And i also would not apreciate AAA games being cross gen but smaller titles will be. MP4 is different: The game was promised for the Switch before it even launched. Sure by far less than 100 milliln users would care, but everyone would see that you cannot trust Nintendo's promise. What if they'd announce a Zelda game shortly before Switch 2 launch with realistic graphics like TP/ OoT just to delay it even further in the 30s to make it Switch 3 exclusive while Switch 2 would "only" get a lukwarm BOTW/ TOTK 4k bundle? Wouldn't you feel pissed?🤔🙂
I wouldn't have been mad personally, because I buy new Nintendo consoles anyway lol. Also, game companies announce things all the time and don't deliver. On the back of the Gamecube box, we were shown upcoming games Donkey Kong Racing and Kameo... neither of which materialized because Nintendo elected to not buy Rare. Was I mad? No. Things happen.
Nintendo sold Rare in to Microsoft in 2003. The last game from Rare was StarFox Adventures for the GC. Yes, Donkey Kong Racing and Kameo where materialized on the Box. That was bad yes. But we all know how the Gamecube sold, right? You want to Switch 2 to share te same fate? Sure not 22 million but 30- 50? If gamers feel pissed, they answer. The Situation with MP4 is a very sensitive. If Nintendo fucks off 155 million users their best selling hardware by the time it probably launches (sure not 155 million users are interested in this game but 3- 5 million at least), everyone far beyond these 155 million+ users will see where they are on when they buy Nintendo hardware. I am like you: I buy every Nintendo/ Xbox/ Playstation (as long as it has physical media for games) but it is about principle and seriosity! You want news headlines like: "Nintendo skrewed their fans for 8+ years- no Metroid Prime 4 on Switch"?
If the Switch was outdated at launch then how come it sold over 150 million and is still selling? The answer? Software. It's software that counts, not hardware. Great games like Odyssey, Tears of the Kingdom, Smash Bros etc were all stunning games on so called outdated hardware. The Steam Deck is much more powerful but will it sell over 150 million? No, it will be lucky to sell 10 million. A system is not outdated if it continues to have great games on it. You tech heads will never learn.
I said the tech was outdated, and it was. So was Wii-U and Wii. The former sold like crap. The other two sold well. But still, they were outdated.
At the end of the day, I just want the best version of Prime I can get. I am not getting that.
No tech is outdated if it can still create great new games. According to your logic a PS 5Pro is outdated as it is technically thrashed by the very latest PC Graphics Cards combined with huge amounts of ram.
But do the very latest PC Graphics Cards with huge ammounts of Ram sell like crazy day 1? Do they get exclusives day 1? I don't think so.
That wasn't the question.
If I knew how to code, I could make a great game for the NES right now. But it would still be outdated. Tech doesn't decide whether a game is great or not.
We don't know for sure what we are getting yet. I personally am hoping for enhancements to Prime 4 on the Switch 2. I already have money aside for the game and system. Since the days of the NES Zelda and Metroid have been my two favorite franchises. Tekken and Splatoon didn't enter my gaming heart until decades later.
Switch: 150 million
Steam Deck: 10 million (max). Damn. Thats far worse than the PS2 vs Xbox vs Gamecube situation was 😵
Only the original Gameboy was more extreme with an around 90%- 95% marketshare!
