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 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...
