Nintendo's New London Pop-Up Hides Inside an Argos

Of all the places you'd expect to find exclusive Nintendo merchandise in London, an Argos on Tottenham Court Road probably isn't high on the list. And yet, that's exactly where the company has quietly set up shop.

The "Nintendo Experience Zone" is now live inside the Argos store, stocked with consoles, games, plushies, figures, and collectibles spanning Nintendo's biggest franchises. The pop-up had zero marketing fanfare. No press release, no social media countdown, nothing. It was spotted and shared by BadxGurlCosplay on TikTok, and that viral video is essentially how the internet found out. Argos' gaming buyer, Peter Wray, confirmed the launch on LinkedIn, noting that the partnership took seven months of planning and brings together "hundreds of lines from across our gaming and license partners."

There's something funny about Nintendo, a company that meticulously controls its brand image down to the pixel, choosing to debut a London retail experience inside a chain best known for laminated catalogues and flatpack furniture. I'm not knocking Argos, but the contrast between browsing Metroid action figures and picking up a toaster from the same building is peak British retail energy.

What's Actually in There

According to BadxGurlCosplay's walkthrough, the selection goes well beyond the usual game-and-console spread. The store carries merchandise from Zelda, Metroid, Animal Crossing, Kirby, Splatoon, and Pikmin, along with Pokémon peripherals, plushies, toys, and board games. There's also stationery, homeware, and kids' toys. Some items are reportedly exclusive to Argos and aren't currently available elsewhere in the UK. VGC noted that the store includes Metroid plushies and action figures that aren't even listed on the My Nintendo Store, plus a large Amiibo selection.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is available at £395.99, and the store carries current Switch software including titles like Metroid Dread at £33.29 and the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition Deluxe Set at £49.99. It's a proper retail footprint, not just a branded shelf at the end of an aisle.

London had a previous Nintendo pop-up store in Westfield Shopping Centre last October, as VGC reported, but that one only lasted about a month. The Argos version is expected to run for a few months, though no firm end date has been given. If you're in London and want to check it out, I wouldn't wait until August to do it.

What strikes me about this whole thing is the stealth approach. Nintendo could have turned this into an event. A social media campaign, some influencer invites, maybe a Mario mascot outside the front door. Instead, they just... opened it. No announcement at all. For a company that usually orchestrates its reveals with military precision, letting a pop-up store get discovered organically through a TikTok video feels like either a deliberate experiment in word-of-mouth marketing or a bizarre oversight. Either way, it worked. The video went viral, and now everyone knows about the Argos Nintendo store that Nintendo never told anyone about.

Peter Wray's LinkedIn post suggests enthusiasm from the Argos side, mentioning that some partners "even hand-delivered stock" to get the store ready. Seven months of planning for a pop-up that launched with zero public-facing promotion is a strange allocation of effort, but the result is a store that London-based Nintendo fans can actually walk into and browse without booking a flight to Tokyo or New York. Given how rarely Nintendo makes its physical merchandise accessible outside of a handful of permanent stores worldwide, a few months of availability in central London is better than nothing.