After years of silence and a full development reboot, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is finally nearing release — and if recent reports are to be believed, it’s coming with a hefty price tag. The game is rumored to have cost as much as $100 million to develop, potentially making it one of Nintendo’s most expensive projects to date.

Originally announced back in 2017, Metroid Prime 4 faced a troubled development cycle that saw the original version scrapped and restarted from scratch at Retro Studios. That decision alone likely added significant costs, as years of early work were effectively thrown away.

The reported budget suggests that Nintendo is placing big bets on the success of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. For perspective, most first-party Nintendo titles typically don’t reach the $100M mark, especially those that aren’t guaranteed multi-million sellers like Mario Kart or Zelda. That makes this figure especially notable — and possibly risky — for a series that, while beloved, has traditionally performed more modestly in terms of sales.

If the budget is accurate, the game would likely need to sell over 4 million copies just to break even. That’s a tall order for Samus, but with the game slated for a 2025 release and launching at the tail end of the Switch’s life cycle (or perhaps even on the next-gen hardware), the timing could help boost sales.

Whether or not the $100 million figure is completely accurate, what’s clear is that Nintendo is treating this project with major-league ambition — and that alone is enough to get longtime fans excited.

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