Summary
- People who placed Metroid Prime 4 pre-orders through Amazon have received emails letting them know they’ve been canceled.
- Some of the canceled pre-orders were placed as far back as 2017 when the game was first announced.
- It’s likely linked to Amazon and Nintendo’s ongoing, unexplained issues, but that remains unclear.
At least one wait for a game some were starting to believe we might never see will end in 2025 and it seems almost certain that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be released this year. That’s despite the worrying development over the weekend that might have had some thinking the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch game might have been scrapped as Amazon has been canceling pre-orders for it.
The mass cancelation of Metroid Prime 4 pre-orders appears to have begun on Friday with more and more who ordered the game through Amazon, some of them doing so as far back as 2017 when the game was announced, claiming the site reached out to let them know their pre-order no longer exists.
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It would be nice to be able to play through the series on Switch before Metroid Prime 4: Beyond hits next year.
Reddit user mecha_flake was among the first to share that their pre-order had been canceled on the Metroid subreddit, leading others to check and discover that they too had received emails from Amazon. OP notes that their pre-order was so old that it had a $10 discount applied. An offer so old that it hasn’t been available for a while, meaning if they want to place a fresh pre-order for the game, they’ll likely have to pay full price.
Amazon Appears To Be Unceremoniously Canceling Metroid Prime 4 Pre-Orders
That Doesn’t Mean The Game Itself Has Been Suddenly Scrapped, Though
Receiving an email letting you know a game you pre-ordered almost eight years ago that Nintendo is seemingly ready to release in 2025 finally has understandably caused a little bit of panic over the weekend. However, Nintendo canceling Metroid Prime 4 entirely, and that being revealed via pre-order cancelations, is incredibly unlikely.
One of the leading theories is that with the Switch 2 being revealed any day now, Nintendo has decided Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will now be released exclusively on its new console. After revealing it during the original Switch’s launch year, and working on it for the Switch since before the Switch had even been released, that seems very unlikely too.
The most likely explanation here is that this is linked to Nintendo and Amazon’s mysterious broken relationship. Last year, Amazon canceled pre-orders for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Since then, US Switch owners have not been able to pre-order new Switch games through Amazon, nor have new Switch games been listed on Amazon after they’ve been released.
Since Metroid Prime 4 pre-orders were placed on Amazon as far back as 2017, long before issues arose between Nintendo and Amazon, they now exist in a world where Switch games can’t be pre-ordered on the site. My guess is Nintendo and Amazon have tried to reconcile, not been successful, and with a release date announcement for the next Metroid Prime likely imminent, Amazon has had to cancel pre-orders since it won’t have stock of the game to distribute.
Metroid Prime 4 continues the series of first-person games that blend the action-adventure and shooter genres, currently in development for the Nintendo Switch.