Announcement of Metroid Dread

At its E3 2021 Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo revealed a new entry in the Metroid series: Metroid Dread. Metroid Dread was originally planned in 2005 for the Nintendo DS, but cancelled because of technical limitations. It lingered in development hell for 15 years until it was revived following the success of Samus Returns.

In the development history video, Sakamoto said that the game was cancelled twice. According to Eurogamer, Dread had been revived in 2008, with a playable prototype being created and shown internally at Nintendo before being cancelled again. This appears to confirm the report from Liam Robertson suggesting a Dread prototype was presented in secret at E3 2009. According to Sakamoto, he first conceived the general concept of a "dreadful" enemy - the E.M.M.I. - fifteen years earlier, but the overall story had been finalized recently with the help of MercurySteam. In Sakamoto's opinion, it surpassed his original vision. The E.M.M.I. were directly inspired by the SA-X, the main antagonist of Metroid Fusion that stalked Samus throughout the game, and was too powerful for her to defeat until the very end.

The general themes and concept of Dread, in which Samus was chased by an overwhelming enemy that she could not defeat, had not changed over the fifteen years. While the game places an emphasis on "fear-based gameplay", Sakamoto promised it was not intended to make Dread a horror game and the E.M.M.I. would not be present everywhere. He also said that while Dread places an emphasis on story, it does not do so in an intrusive way, making use of occasional cutscenes similar to Samus Returns. Although the story concept remained the same, Sakamoto said that the presentation and details evolved over the course of development, and exceeded his original expectations. Dread was also designed in a way that newcomers could enjoy the game even if they had not played any previous Metroid titles, with the introduction summarizing past events, particularly those of Fusion. Gameplay-wise, it took more reference from past Metroid titles than unrelated Metroidvania games.

Reception
Fans Metroid were to ecstatic to see that Metroid Dread was finally becoming a reality and praised the return to 2D since there hadn't been a new 2D Metroid game since Fusion (not counting remakes and re-releases).