To be honest, after the reveal of Federation Force they should have just canned that
er and started from scratch. It sold like shit, got terrible reviews, and everyone (except Nintendo, apparently) could see that coming. They would have been much better off if they just cut their losses and didn't spend the money on continued development and distribution for that turd. The fact that they didn't, and instead decided to just press on with an obvious failure, says a lot about their attitude towards Metroid fans to me.