Retro Studios announced Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze at E3, disappointing fans who were hoping for a sequel to its critically-acclaimed Metroid Prime series. The studio has since opened up about its reasoning, its love for both series, and what a new Metroid game might look like.

"Well, we love Metroid. We love Metroid Prime and we always will. It was a big part of our studio, the culture of the studio. The majority of that team is still at Retro," president Michael Kelbaugh told IGN. "When we finished with DK [Country Returns], we still had a lot of really cool ideas. That, in combination with what the Wii U could do, we really wanted to continue with that. Again, Retro Studios loves Metroid. We might do another one someday. But we really enjoyed working with DK as well."

Kelbaugh also dispelled any notion that a Metroid game might be in the works in the background. He said that the studio is fairly small, and can't support more than one major project at a time. Their cycle lasts two or three years, which would make a potential new Metroid game due in 2015 at the earliest.

But what might that Metroid look like? Kelbaugh says he'd like to "expand the whole Samus universe" beyond the scope of the heroine herself. "You remember Metroid Prime Hunters," he said. "I'm thinking about things like how we could make that go out further, with all these different bounty hunters as well."