On June 13, 2017, Nintendo surprised millions of people by announcing that Metroid Prime 4 was happening. Nearly a decade later, the game is finally almost here. But Metroid Prime 4, now called Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, is launching on Switch 2 as well as the OG console, and is being developed by original Prime devs Retro Studios and not Bandai Namco. Needless to say, a lot has changed since 2017.
But all these years later, some people still have Metroid Prime 4 pre-orders from years ago and are finally ready to play the long-awaited sequel.
People began pre-ordering Metroid Prime 4, launching on Switch and Switch 2 on December 3, shortly after it was announced. That was back in 2017. And over the years, people continued to pre-order the game despite the dearth of updates from Nintendo. You can find people who pre-ordered as early as June 2017, just days after it was revealed. Now, years later, some of these people are remembering that they pre-ordered Prime 4 back in the day.
“Oh, okay, thanks for the email. I definitely forgot I already ordered Metroid Prime 4 six years ago,” said Elliot on social media. Later, we chatted about the years-old pre-order and they told me they plan on buying it still on Switch as opposed to Switch 2, as they prefer to physically own games, and Prime 4 on the new console is a digital key card. As for what they felt when they got that email: “Surprise.”
“[I laughed when] I got that email update from Best Buy in Sept, out of the blue, I suppose whenever Nintendo updated the release date,” Elliot told me. “I pre-ordered a really large order of Switch games on Best Buy in 2019, particularly because my gamer club 10% discount would be expiring soon. I’m pretty sure this order was placed shortly after a Nintendo Direct, too. (The Animal Crossing one?) So those two factors convinced me to drop like $250 on upcoming releases across 2019-2020. Which included Metroid Prime 4 at the time!”
Elliot isn’t alone. You can find plenty of people online who pre-ordered Metroid Prime 4 between 2018 and 2019 at Best Buy using the Gamer Club discount. Some were able to get a pretty good deal on the game using various discounts and credits, which feels like even more of a steal in 2025 as games get more and more expensive.
One of the people who took advantage of that Gamer Club deal was Bluesky user Bucket Mouse. They pre-ordered Prime 4 in 2018, and since then, a lot has changed in their life.
“Since my preorder, I’ve finished grad school, switched careers, started a small business, bought a house, and had three children,” Bucket Mouse told me via social media reply. “….Dang. I’ve never put this in context; it’s really mind-blowing that we’ve been waiting this long.” When asked if they are still excited about playing Metroid Prime 4 after all these years, they told me: “I am beyond excited. I’m taking off work to play it!”
Bluesky user Rebecca Stone told me that her 2019 pre-order of Prime 4 was at one point canceled and removed from her account years ago. However, she was able to revive the pre-order and will now be getting a copy of Metroid Prime 4 very soon.
And while not everyone was lucky enough to hold on to their pre-orders, with Amazon cancelling many of them earlier this year, there are plenty of folks who, in December, are going to be playing a game they pre-ordered when their life was very different. Like Bluesky user Milton, who shared how their life had changed since pre-ordering five years ago, posting:
“Apparently, I pre-ordered Metroid Prime 4 back in March 2020,” they posted. “I’ve had a whole-ass child, bought a house, and Nintendo released a whole new console in that time. Donald Trump is still president, tho.”
