Speaking with Gamespot, Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe confirmed that Retro Studios, the developers of the Metroid Prime and new Donkey Kong Country games, are currently at work on a brand new game.
Retro, which is owned by Nintendo, recently shipped Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for the Wii U. Tanabe, who has overseen all the studio’s projects to date, shared that the mysterious new title has been in development for a few months, as Retro wrapped up development of Donkey Kong in November.
Tanabe wouldn’t confirm what the new game is, but in a recent interview (thanks, N-Sider) with Official Nintendo Magazine in the U.K., Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto pointed to Retro as a “high priority” studio when potentially considering development of a new Metroid game.
“Certainly the Metroid franchise is one that, when you talk about really bringing the world to life, we feel that Metroid and the characters established are really important for Nintendo,” Miyamoto said at the time. “So important that they were included, obviously, in Nintendo Land.”
He continued, “I definitely think it’s a franchise that we value and we certainly want to see what we can do with it in the future. And, obviously, Retro is a very high priority in terms of the potential team that would be considered for working on a Metroid game.”
In the same interview, Miyamoto also stated that he felt Retro Studios are at the point where they can have multiple projects in development at once. Typically, the studio works on one major game at a time.
