Concept and creation. Conceived by scenario designer Makoto Kano and designed by Hiroji Kiyotake, series co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto conceived of the idea of making Samus a woman midway through the first Metroid's development, which the development team voted in favor of.

The pitch sounded good to fans, but the final delivery would leave gamers dissatisfied with many key aspects of the experience. Metroid: Other M tried to inject new ideas and mechanics into a series that had already formed some quite rigid conventions in regards to controls, game progression, and narrative structure.

Sakamoto explained that Samus's limited speaking role, compared to Other M and Fusion, had to do with the game's titular theme of dread. He felt that for this mission, Samus's feelings and thoughts were better left up to the player's imagination through non-verbal cues, like the expressions her eyes make.

At first players were led to believe that the hero was a man - the game's accompanying booklet referred to Samus as a “he”. But those who completed the game fast enough were in for a shock: at the end Samus revealed herself to be a woman.