The vast majority of the public outcry surrounding Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s performance issues and underwhelming visuals at launch have been stuck in the Arena Trap hold of social media and will circulate in perpetuity—as with every Pokémon game. But for those who have actually searched for answers beyond social circles, there apparently wasn’t much to find.
Service technicians have not received any complaints, according to multiple users who have contacted Nintendo’s customer support lines since the new Pokémon games launched.
This is obviously not true, considering just how much backlash from fans, content creators, and large media companies in the gaming space has been flooding the internet since well before the games released on Nov. 18. This isn’t the fault of the techs in question, though, but rather the system likely set up by the company or Nintendo.
As one former call center rep pointed out on Reddit, denying knowledge about products is common practice for support lines—most commonly tied to companies who outsource their support via partnerships to larger call centers.
If Nintendo’s support line operates under something like the perceived method, this would mean the techs would have to state that each complaint is the first time someone is bringing it up and that there are no plans for a patch or update to fix the reported issues. In this case, it would mean denying ever hearing about frame rate drops, crashes, and plenty of other bugs and any information about a fix.
Whether the support techs are actually aware of the problem or not, it wouldn’t matter because they are likely asked to respond in those specific ways no matter what and only escalate the issues to their superiors on a case-by-case basis.
In all likelihood, Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokémon Company are well aware of the wave of reactions to its latest core product—and likely were expecting something of the like to happen when the companies decided to ship it in its current state. Whether or not this means a performance patch or any other changes are coming is still up in the air, but don’t expect Nintendo’s official support lines to give you the necessary information to build a case on.
At best, you could get lucky and receive a refund for your copy of Scarlet or Violet if you truly hate the games like some players have seemingly done. But whatever you do, don’t go harassing the employees if they don’t give you the answers you want to hear.
Update Nov. 23, 6.10pm CT: Additional reports from multiple fans have now confirmed Nintendo’s customer support is providing actual information in regard to complaints surrounding Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s performance issues.
No real specifics were provided, but the update noted that potential fixes could take “several weeks” to implement and that concerned customers will receive an email once the reported issues are resolved.
Dot Esports has also reached out to Nintendo for comment.
