Pokémon Scarlet and Violet only recently launched, but stories have already spread far and wide on social media about their major performance issues. Players have encountered everything from crashes to lag to NPCs and Pokémon popping in and out at certain distances. Many have come to the conclusion that while the games are fun, these bugs and issues make it difficult to fully enjoy everything the region of Paldea has to offer.
For players who are struggling to enjoy Scarlet and Violet through its problems, there may be some recourse in the future in the form of a patch. Previous Pokémon games have received patches correcting a variety of issues; Scarlet and Violet already received a day-one patch that introduced multiplayer and online play, so it’s not out of the question that they could receive more.
Here is everything we know about Scarlet and Violet‘s upcoming patches and updates.
Scarlet and Violet patch speculation
As of this writing, it’s not clear when Scarlet and Violet will receive another update. The first and most recent patch, 1.0.1, introduced the game’s online features, which was more of a feature addition than a bug fix. While we don’t know when the two games will receive a patch and what it will fix, we can look to the update history of other recent Pokémon games to get a sense of when patches tend to come out and what they adjust.
Other than its day-one patch, which simply “fixed some problems for a better gaming experience,” Pokémon Legends: Arceus received three updates during its first two months of life. These updates both brought new content to the game, including Eternal Battle Reverie and new Training Grounds battles, and fixed bugs. Most of the fixes issued were for major problems, like screen freezes and the inability to complete quests; very few were for performance issues, like lag or frame rate.
Most of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl‘s updates were also oriented towards fixing big issues, including screen locks and menu bugs. Other than this, no real “optimization” features were added to any of the game’s patches, the most recent of which was released on March 16, 2022. It seems after a few months’ worth of updates that fix the most urgent bugs, Game Freak places its focus elsewhere.
Related: Should Nintendo have delayed Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s release? Some fans are in agreement
This means there isn’t likely to be a patch that fixes Scarlet and Violet‘s performance issues, like lag and pop-in. There will almost certainly be a fix for crashes, particularly online play-related crashes, and there will likely be free content updates in the future, but players will most likely not receive a patch that fixes all of the game’s visual issues.
