Many fans are unhappy and requesting refunds after Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s disastrously buggy launch last week.
The newest release in the series may have surpassed previous sales records for Nintendo, but the criticism received over performance issues may hurt the publisher in the long run.
These issues have resulted in many players trying to get their money back, feeling that the game is far below the AAA standards and price tag.
Many players are reporting their successful refund requests on Reddit and other online discords and are highly disappointed by the sub-par release of the game.
Fans claim that they do not wish to wait for patches or updates before the game is actually playable and are sickened by the latest example of publishers releasing a game before it is ready.
Players have made claims that the game is practically unplayable in its current state and runs at less than 20 FPS at times, not to mention dozens of bugs have also been reported.
Pokémon is by far one of the most beloved franchises worldwide, so this unfortunate turn of events has left many loyal fans feeling disrespected and truly sad.
Although many people have reported their successful refunds, others have not been so lucky and have been denied their money back in their attempts for a refund.
There have also been reports of EU customer support being non-existent, and this alongside Nintendo’s relative silence on the matter has left customers shaking their heads in disbelief.
Another concerning piece of news emerging is that reviewers weren’t able to receive a copy of the game until after it was released. This should have been the first red flag that the game shouldn’t have been released just yet.
Some reviews did address these technical and performance issues briefly, but remained reserved in their criticisms, instead focusing on what the game does well.
The improvements to the single-player campaign might be great, and the increased world map and battle mechanics may be the best in the series, but all this is irrelevant if the game doesn’t run at an acceptable level.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s controversial release marks a growing trend in the industry and shares many shady similarities with the release of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 back in 2020.
Despite the backlash, Nintendo announced that the latest Pokémon titles had exceeded 10 million units sold in the first three days after its release. It is the highest global sales reported of any Nintendo platform game.
This begs the question, despite the criticism and backlash will publishers keep releasing unfinished games as long as it continues to be profitable?
Just like Cyberpunk 2077, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was hyped to be one of the biggest games of the year, but after being released with performance issues and many other technical problems, will fans boycott the franchise in the future, and will more games be pulled from stores due to sub-standard quality if this keeps happening?
