diff --git a/cmd/embedded-cluster/metadata.go b/cmd/embedded-cluster/metadata.go
index 9b99cefac..dfbb417fb 100644
--- a/cmd/embedded-cluster/metadata.go
+++ b/cmd/embedded-cluster/metadata.go
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
-	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"sort"
 
@@ -15,7 +14,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/addons/embeddedclusteroperator"
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/config"
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/defaults"
-	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/embed"
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/goods"
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/release"
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/utils"
@@ -26,17 +24,9 @@ var metadataCommand = &cli.Command{
 	Usage:  "Print metadata about this release",
 	Hidden: true,
 	Action: func(c *cli.Context) error {
-		// If we are a fully realized release, we can extract the metadata from the binary
-		metadata, err := goods.ExtractReleaseMetadataFromSelf()
+		metadata, err := gatherVersionMetadata()
 		if err != nil {
-			if !errors.Is(err, embed.ErrEmbeddedDataNotFound) {
-				return fmt.Errorf("failed to extract version metadata: %w", err)
-			}
-			// Otherwise, we can gather the metadata from the defaults
-			metadata, err = gatherVersionMetadata()
-			if err != nil {
-				return fmt.Errorf("failed to gather version metadata: %w", err)
-			}
+			return fmt.Errorf("failed to gather version metadata: %w", err)
 		}
 		data, err := json.MarshalIndent(metadata, "", "\t")
 		if err != nil {