Metroid Prime 4 Is Being Sold For $30 In Japan

The Metroid Prime series has historically always struggled in Japan. It was created to draw in the Western FPS-playing audience, moving away from its roots that made the original games popular in the country. Prior to Metroid Prime 4, the original Prime title managed just 78,000 sales in the country; the sequel, 40,000; Prime 3, 75,000; and, most recently, Metroid Prime Remastered debuted, selling only 7,960 physical copies in its first week.

Step forward, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The game had an extremely troubled development cycle and ended up with sales figures to match; now copies of the Switch 2 version have been spotted for around $30.

Metroid Prime 4 Has Received An Unprecedented Discount In Japan

Nintendo

Metroid Prime 4 was in development for a very long time, so its launch sales and middling review scores would likely have spelled frustration for Nintendo. In just its second week on the market, Prime 4 managed a paltry 3,000 physical unit sales in Japan. It’s no wonder the whole Metroid series is only Nintendo’s 17th-best seller of all time (below Brain Age, Game & Watch, and Nintendogs).

It seems that, only four months after its launch, Metroid Prime 4’s poor sales are catching up to it, and it’s received a massive discount at one Japanese retailer.

Shared on Twitter by user DJmizuhara (via Genki), one store has copies of the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Prime 4 for sale at ¥4,948 (£23.26/$31.20). That’s almost half of its ¥8,890 ($42/$56) launch price.

There’s a lot to unpack here. Typically, wherever you are in the world, Nintendo games never go on sale, and when they do, it’s usually for a measly $5. A discount of almost 50 percent is nigh on unheard of, especially for a game that’s less than four months old. If anything were to indicate just how unpopular the Prime series is in Japan, though, it’s this.

Given the opposite fortunes of Metroid Dread, which reviewed exceptionally well, earning a Game of the Year nomination and becoming the best-selling Metroid game in the process, I wouldn’t be surprised if Samus’ adventures were limited to 2D from hereon out.

Systems

Released

December 4, 2025

ESRB

Teen / Animated Blood, Violence

Developer(s)

Retro Studios

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

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