Nintendo’s marketing campaign didn’t exactly go as planned for the Japanese giant, leaving Samus misleading commuters in one of the world’s busiest cities…

A poster for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has popped up on the London Underground. No problem there—except it boldly claims the game is “Out Now.” The team at VGC spotted this at Oxford Circus station, and the “Out Now” banner on the ad suggests Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is already on shelves. In reality, the game doesn’t even have a release date yet, and there’s been no stealth launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 eShop.

VGS also snapped a similar Mario Kart World poster with the very same “Out Now” label nearby. It looks like whoever designed the ads simply copied the Mario Kart World template for the Metroid Prime 4 campaign and forgot to remove the release label. Even so, it’s remarkable that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is getting this much promotional push alongside other highly anticipated Switch 2 games—Donkey Kong Bananza and Super Mario Party Jamboree TV—suggesting Nintendo is gearing up for a big release date announcement soon.

Developed by Retro Studios for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, Metroid Prime 4 is scheduled for release this year. The Switch 2 version will feature mouse support and frame rates up to 120 FPS. Nintendo first teased the project on June 13, 2017, during their E3 Nintendo Direct with a brief 43-second teaser showing outer space, a big number four, and the message that development had started for the Switch. For years, there was radio silence—especially after Nintendo revealed in 2019 that the project was being rebooted, moving from an unnamed team (believed to be Bandai Namco) back to original Prime developer Retro Studios.

A Nintendo spokesperson told VGC the poster was an error—so even Nintendo seems to have been blindsided by the blunder.

Source: VGC