Nintendo has put out a statement that Pokémon Sword and Shield will not refund players that purchase the wrong version of the game's Isle of Armor expansion. Isle of Armor is the first half of Pokemon Sword and Shield's Expansion , and it's set to be released incredibly soon, making Nintendo's inaction in this matter all the more upsetting.
The Expansion has separate listings for both Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield on the Switch eShop, and the different versions of the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLC are bafflingly incompatible with the incorrect version. The game-specific DLC are mostly similar to each other with a few differences. Aside from different wild encounters in each version, they feature different rivals the player will encounter on their journey. The Pokémon Sword version will have Klara, a rival who primarily employs poison type pokémon, while the Pokémon Shield version will feature Avery, who relies on psychic types.
As reported and summarized by Nintendo Soup, Nintendo of Japan's Customer has tweeted a disappointing and mildly unsurprising response to a noticeable increase of players complaining to them that they've bought the wrong version of the Expansion . Though they shared instructions on how to correctly access the Expansion option in the menu of the correct Pokémon game that a player actually owns, they made no mention of refunding players that have already made the wrong purchase by accident. The closest the tweet comes to helping in that regard is warning players to be careful when purchasing the DLC, which is a slap in the face of those who've dropped $30 down the drain at best and downright avaricious at worst.
Nintendo's eShop has been stingy in the past with offering refunds for games. Earlier this year, Nintendo highest selling Pokémon game of all time and one of the Switch's most reliable bestsellers.
Still, the amount of ire that Pokémon Sword and Shield draw doesn't look good for Nintendo, and this is yet another grievance to add to the pile. While it's highly doubtful that this will affect the game's sales in any major capacity, refusing to practice basic customer service isn't a good way of building the Nintendo or Pokémon brands, which shouldn't coast off the good faith they've won from good business done in the past. It would also go some way towards rebuilding trust with those who were left unsatisfied with the experience of Pokémon Sword and Shield thus far to do the right thing and refund players affected by a mistake that is obviously all too easy to make.
Pokémon Sword and Shield is available now on Nintendo Switch.
Source: Nintendo Soup, Twitter