Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Falls to £19.97 on Switch in Rare Nintendo Deal

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has received an unusually steep price cut for a Nintendo-published Switch game in the UK. The Nintendo Switch physical edition is currently listed at £19.97, down from its original £55.99 launch price. That is a saving of £36.02 and, for a first-party Nintendo release that arrived less than a year ago, it is the kind of discount that tends to attract attention from both dedicated collectors and players who were waiting for a better entry point.

The reduction is particularly notable because major Nintendo games often retain much of their value long after launch. It is not uncommon for first-party Switch releases to remain near the £40 to £50 range years later, even when newer hardware has arrived. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for example, is still commonly found at roughly £45 in the UK despite being nine years old. Against that backdrop, getting a recent Metroid release below £20 makes this promotion stand out.

A substantial drop from launch

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launched on Nintendo Switch on December 4 at £55.99 in the UK. Its current £19.97 price represents a dramatic reduction in a comparatively short period of time. The deal is available through Amazon in the UK, while the game has also been reduced in the United States to $34.99 at Best Buy. In the US, the lowered Best Buy price may not appear until the item has been added to the basket.

There is always a degree of caution around retail promotions, particularly when pricing can change without much notice. Still, the £19.97 Switch listing appears to be a genuine retail discount rather than an apparent pricing error. That distinction matters following reports of other very low Switch 2 game prices being cancelled elsewhere.

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For players who have stayed with the original Switch hardware, the appeal is straightforward. This is a chance to buy a major Nintendo title physically at a price that is closer to the sort of discount more commonly associated with older third-party releases. Metroid games can have a particularly long tail among collectors, so a significant drop on a boxed copy may be worth considering for anyone building out a physical library.

A cheaper route for Switch 2 owners

The deal is not limited to players using the original Switch, Switch Lite, or Switch OLED. Nintendo Switch 2 owners can also potentially use the discount as a lower-cost way to access the newer version of the game. A digital Upgrade Pack is available through the eShop for £7.99, meaning the discounted £19.97 Switch copy and upgrade together come to £27.96.

That combined total remains below the usual roughly £29.99 price of the dedicated Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Switch 2 Edition at UK retailers including John Lewis. The difference is modest once the cost of the upgrade is included, but it still leaves buyers a little money ahead. More importantly for physical-game fans, the lower-priced Switch copy provides the cartridge while the Switch 2 improvements are obtained through the separate upgrade entitlement.

The Switch 2 Edition is effectively the Switch release packaged with a redeemable Upgrade Pack. That means the discounted standard edition does not represent a fundamentally incomplete purchase for people with Nintendo's newer system, provided they are happy to obtain the enhancement separately through the eShop. Buyers who prefer to keep every part of a game on cartridge may see that distinction differently, but from a cost perspective the split purchase is a viable option.

Why the discount feels unusual for Nintendo releases

Nintendo's first-party catalogue has a reputation for resisting deep discounts. Sales do happen, of course, and retailers sometimes compete aggressively during major shopping periods. But price cuts approaching two-thirds off a recent release are far less routine than they are on PC storefronts or among publishers with more frequent digital promotions.

That makes the deal relevant beyond the usual bargain-hunting audience. A player who had been waiting to catch up on the earlier Metroid Prime games, for instance, may not have planned to buy Beyond yet. The low price changes the calculation: it can make sense to secure a physical copy now and play it later, especially when the saving is large enough to cover the separate Switch 2 upgrade with money left over.

There is also an important difference between buying a game at a small discount and finding it at £19.97 after a £55.99 debut. At the latter price, the purchase becomes much easier to justify for someone who is curious about the series but has not made Metroid a priority. That is likely to be especially true for those who have played fewer of the Prime games and may be approaching Metroid Prime 4: Beyond as a future backlog game rather than an immediate playthrough.

Be wary of questionable £20 Switch 2 listings

The Metroid discount arrives alongside reports of several Switch 2 games being listed for as little as £20 at Argos. However, those listings should be approached carefully. Posts and replies on BlueSky, including comments highlighted by Jon Cartwright, indicated that multiple orders had been cancelled. One user, @BowserPlush, reported an unsuccessful attempt to order Metroid Prime 4 through the promotion.

That does not necessarily mean every order will be cancelled, and shoppers may still choose to try their luck if the listings remain available. But the situation has the hallmarks of a potential pricing glitch rather than a stable sale. Anyone placing an order should avoid making plans around it until they receive confirmation that it has been dispatched.

For those specifically after Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the £19.97 Switch price is therefore the clearer option at the time of writing. It may not include the uncertainty or eye-catching breadth of the Argos listings, but it is a strong discount on its own merits and offers a predictable path for both Switch and Switch 2 players.

What buyers should consider

• Original Switch players: The £19.97 physical version is a major reduction from the £55.99 launch price and does not require any additional purchase for the Switch release.
• Switch 2 players: Adding the £7.99 Upgrade Pack brings the total to £27.96, slightly under the approximate £29.99 cost of the retail Switch 2 Edition.
• Physical collectors: The standard edition provides a physical copy, while the Switch 2-specific enhancement is redeemed digitally.
• US shoppers: Best Buy has reduced the game to $34.99, though the lower price may only be visible after adding it to the cart.
• Argos bargain hunters: The £20 Switch 2 game offers may be a glitch, with reports of cancellations already circulating.

Metroid has rarely been the easiest Nintendo series to buy cheaply in physical form, and the same is broadly true of Nintendo's biggest releases overall. Whether someone is returning to Samus Aran's adventures, starting a Prime-series catch-up, or simply looking for a well-priced Switch cartridge before the deal disappears, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond at £19.97 is an unusually compelling proposition.

The availability and price can change quickly with retailer promotions, but the current reduction is significant enough to be worth noting. For Switch owners, it is one of the more striking recent examples of a current first-party Nintendo game reaching an accessible price point. For Switch 2 owners, the optional upgrade means the cheaper standard edition can also serve as a sensible alternative to buying the newer package outright.