Former Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé recently published his memoir, Disrupting the Game. One of the stories he shares in it concerns First Hunt, the demo of Metroid Prime Hunters that came with the first launch of Nintendo DS hardware in late 2004. Apparently, Hunters was not progressing through development at the speed Reggie was hoping for, so he suggested making a demo to tide fans over. This was an unpopular decision with the development team at NST, since refocusing on a demo would mean delaying Hunters by six months, but Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto agreed with Reggie. Hence, First Hunt was born.

In our interview with Hunters composer Lawrence Schwedler, he said that First Hunt was a proof of concept, and that NST used the lessons they learned on it in the full game. While it may not have been a popular decision from Nintendo at the time, it ultimately worked out when Hunters released in 2006 to positive reviews.

Source: Nintendo Everything