In a rare move for the famous video game publisher, Nintendo acknowledged fans’ and critics’ complaints regarding performance issues in “Pokémon Scarlet” and “Pokémon Violet” Wednesday, tweeting that it takes player feedback “seriously” and is working on improvements to the games.
The tweet also announced a software update for the games, slated to release Thursday. Many players hope the patch will address the game’s plentiful — though often hilarious — technical issues.
“We are aware that players may encounter issues that affect the games’ performance,” wrote Nintendo in the update’s patch notes. “Our goal is always to give players a positive experience with our games, and we apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Scarlet” and “Violet,” released Nov. 18, are the series’ first fully open-world effort. The game’s developer, Game Freak, also released “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” earlier in 2022; then, too, Pokéfans pointed to the game’s performance issues and graphical shortcomings as some of its bigger weaknesses.
The slew of social clips did not appear to change Nintendo and developer Game Freak’s patch schedule; “Arceus” received its first substantial patch at approximately the same time following its release. But while previous game entries’ official patch notes contain specific changes made within each update, “Scarlet” and “Violet’s” patch notes simply state that “other select bug fixes have been made,” suggesting a higher-than-usual volume of updates.
It remains to be seen what precisely will be affected by the patch.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
