It's time to dust off your 3DS and your copy of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, because people have been reporting that their cartridges are no longer working, almost seven years after the release of the game.
A few people on Reddit and ResetEra are making sure to test their copies, and it seems like only the PAL version is affected, although it's not clear what might have caused the issue yet.
One player notes that their copy hasn't worked "since Spring 2020"; another (in Italy) says that their copy of Alpha Sapphire hasn't worked since at least 2019, and says it's a "widespread issue"; other people have managed to get their games to work fine despite being in European countries.
This wouldn't be the first time that games have ceased to work after a certain amount of time. The original GBA Ruby and Sapphire games had a "berry glitch" that stopped berry trees from growing after 366 days from when the game was first played.
This glitch was in the pre-internet-on-consoles era, so patching the game was very difficult, and involved either owning a different Pokémon game that would add a patch to Ruby and Sapphire, or going in to specific game stores to download it from their special GBA. You could even send in the cartridge to Nintendo, up until August 2012.
Needless to say, it'll be easier to patch Pokémon ORAS, as long as the issue is a simple one.
[UPDATE - 6th May: With regards to the ORAS issue, we had a reader reach out to us, @Voultar, who may have identified the cause of the cartridge problem, and it may explain why it has seemingly affected a particular batch in meaningful numbers. It is anecdotal of course, but you can view the video below, in which re-soldering the chip seems to get the game working again. It's an interesting potential fix, even if it's not possible at this point to confirm it as a 100% solution.]
Is your copy of Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire still working? Let us know in the comments.
[source resetera.com]
Comments 122
When games themselves throw tantrums cause they're not being remade on Switch.
I dont know will test it later but Smash 3ds does not work. Dont know how though every other game seems fine.
Was playing a month ago. It works fine.
Maybe Game Freak liked the original berry glitch so much that they improved it for the remake so that it crippled the entire game.
I certainly hope our 3ds games aren't time bombs. This would be terrible for future retro-gaming.
This is interesting, I wonder if it has to do with the software or hardware side of things
this is worriesome. I thought the 3DS was safe from a game preservation standpoint since cartridge-based media tends to be sturdy and should last for a long time. I guess that's not true huh,
I wouldn't have expected 3DS era games to crap out for another decade or two. My Pokemon Crystal cartridge stopped working a while back, but my team lives on in Pokemon Stadium 2... until that goes too.
It could be worse though... disc rot has taken most of my PS1 games, and is making its way through my GameCube collection as we speak.
@neufel Hear-hear.
I'd HATE to lose my 'Miitopia' save file.
@Desrever disc rot is my biggest fear. I haven’t experienced any yet (and I have fairly large PS1 and GameCube collections) but it’s always on my mind. Doesn’t stop me buying more of them though!
How were your games stored?
@Desrever Disc rot is 🐃💩, made up by the industry.
I have Music CDs bought in 2000, they still work and have no 'rot' on them, only light scratches.
Disc rot is due to how a person keeps their collection.
I wonder if other games are having issues like this. My copy of Super Mario 3D Land worked late last year and that was one of my oldest 3DS games. Then again, my copies of Animal Crossing: Wild World and Phantom Hourglass are even older and they still work so maybe it's just the Pokemon games.
Weird! Guess it was lucky I bought Sapphire digitally then. Which is crazy cause I never do that. Just happened to have a nintendo card I needed to spend at the time.
My son was just complaining a few weeks ago that the game stopped working. Could be a different issue altogether but when he gets to a certain point it freezes every time. We did try it on his & his brother’s 3DS, so I figured there had to be an issue with the cart.
@Deppasois sadly disc rot has taken my Mario kart double dash, but not my other 63 GameCube games.
There is no difference between the way I keep games, but I can clearly see the disc peppered with dots when viewed against a light.
Luckily a friend game me his copy of DD from his loft 😁
Both mine OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire are still working perfectly.
Well, time to panic backup both of my copies to my computer.
Just tested mine and it's fine (Alpha Sapphire, PAL). I wonder what's causing this though. I hope Nintendo is able to patch it for those affected.
I just tested and my Alpha Sapphire is getting "This game card cannot be used." on startup and this is it.
Just checked my Omega Ruby copy and it, thank Arceus, still works. It has some physcial ware and tare though, most likely from putting it in and out of the system.
Considering many people on the forums say that the majority of copies affected ar PAL versions in a German box my guess is that the problem is physical. Like a component starting to fail after all these years.
Can they just port the old Pokemon games to switch already?
Alpha Sapphire is working fine for me. If it was an issue with 3ds carts wouldn't we have heard about this sooner? It's not like ORAS was among the first 3DS games.
At least you'd expect X & Y to start going bye bye first.
Both of mine work fine. They're North American copies so I suppose it wasn't necessary to check.
Though if it becomes a real concern, I might consider making, uh, backups.
I guess I have to find a new Alpha Sapphire as my copy is indeed faulty even after playing it last year!
It does NOT work on my 3 3DS systems.
Oh God I hope not, Omega Ruby happens to be the only game I still have a fully complete living dex on, all forms, every mythical, 100+ shinies. I never bothered with importing up to Gen 7 and up, as they scrapped the National Dex from Sun & Moon onwards
Yep, my copy of Omega Ruby suddenly kicked the bucket several years ago, for no apparent reason. Luckily my most important ‘mons (the ones I had been transferring from game to game since the original ORAS on GBA) were in the PC boxes rather than in my active team, so I managed to salvage them through Pokemon Home.
Realized mine was dead a while ago. Sold my boxed copy to a reseller for 20 bucks and bit the bullet and paid 44€ for the digital version to save my save file.
It probably would have been enough to save them via Pokémon Home, but I didn't wanna risk getting a new copy and that not working either...
I'm surprised this is newsworthy now. When I looked into this, all the comments I've found online said it's common, thus I didn't expect anyone to bother and patch this.
This is why I keep telling people that "physical is forever" is complete bullcrap. I say this as a collector myself who has seen numerous physical copies simply cease to work for no given reason. In my case it was Sonic Rush and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. This is to say nothing of disc based media and the consoles themselves dying at a frightening rate. Whether you buy physical or digital, nothing lasts forever. This is one reason why I'm terrified to dig up my Gamecube games and check them. Part of me considers simply selling a good chunk of my collection off before things like this happen and ruin the value, but I don't really need the money.
With that being said, I recently played my copy of Omega Ruby and it worked fine. I transferred my mons from it to the Pokemon Home thing. My copy is NA though. Curious to see this is happening to EU/PAl copies only. I'm wondering if it's at all possible that the copies that are dying are somehow bootlegged? I remember hearing at one point there was a huge issue with bootlegged copies of HGSS. Could be just a batch of defects too.
Curious case all around though. While games do randomly die, it's rare for it to be big number all dying within a few years of each other.
@GravyThief I keep them in their original casing, inside a storage container... buuuuut admittedly, they did spend a few years haphazardly laying about during my more carefree days of impromptu Melee tournaments. The few games I noticed it on are mostly ones that had heavier rotation.
@Deppasois Honestly, I haven't noticed it any of my DVDs, and the music CDs that have rot had some heavy usage, so I can't blame it entirely for those. But what I've noticed the little rot spots pop up on the most were the back up CDs I burned myself. I can 100% assure you I bought the cheapest spindles of blank discs that I could find, so thats definitely part of it.
Mine's working perfectly fine
@Jooles_95 Yeeey I am not alone in this crap!
Just tested my PAL version of Omega Ruby and it still works
Wait, it's been seven years since ORAS launched?? Still feels like yesterday 😳
@Desrever Oh god, I'm terrified to check my Gamecube collection now...
Just checked my copy and it's fine for now. I think I remember hearing some people having save file issues with EU copies of ORAS when it first launched, so maybe this is connected to that.
@SNESuperior You are more likely to have issues with the hardware reading it than the disc just going bad.
I will check my copy when I get home later. As for potential fixes, my copy of Smash 3DS didn't work for ages until I went on the eshop and repaired the software from the product page. That may or may not solve the issue!
@Deppasois "I have Music CDs bought in 2000, they still work and have no 'rot' on them , only light scratches."
My music CD collection goes back to 1990, and there's not hint of "rot" on a single one of them.
My Omega Ruby copy still works but I gotta force it... sometimes I insert the cartridge but it won’t read it sometimes just take a few inserts then it would work.
I just tested it. My copy works fine.
Mine is fine. People reporting issues are probably the same people who toss games and consoles in their bags without a case.
Spoiler: That's a bad idea.
I will bet the Percentage is under one Percent of overall Copies.
As an Example, at my Work somebody on another Branch reclaimed that every Day is something wrong and it has been more and more.
I've analyzed it and in the End it was 0,45%.
The Problem was that we have between 20-30% more Output than the last Year, so instead of one Issue he gets four per Day, but compared to the Mass that goes out it is nearly nothing.
So some People have Problems with their Copies, now you have to show how it came to be before reclaiming that there is a true Issue.
That's weird. I had the same problem with my Animal Crossing New Leaf cart last year, it doesn't work anymore. This worries me. Anyone else who have had this issue?
@Deppasois I still have mine from the 80s and 90s
@Heavyarms55 How about no? I store my games in a huge plastic case that closes so nothing gets inside. I never throw them or anything like that.
Yet I tested my Alpha Sapphire copy after I read this article and it is NOT working anymore! I have not played it since last year!
This is the same on my 3 3DS consoles. I tried the eshop repair - not working!
The cartridge is clean.
Three copies (a physical copy each of OR and AS, and a digital copy of AS that came with my 3DS) - all work fine, which is a relief.
I've been holding on to my Pokemon games since Red/Blue/Yellow so it'd be a real shame for such recent games to stop working already.
I downloaded mine, and I live in the US, so I should be safe. Sucks for anyone affected though. I assume this is a hardware issue? (The cartridge's hardware, that is.) Because that's the only way I could see cartridges breaking at different times. Its also possible that it dies depending on your system's internal clock, so anyone with the problem may want to try time traveling back a few years. Just some thoughts.
@EarthboundBenjy not like the old nes days, those carts are tanks
I've heard this happen multiple times with Persona Q also so may be worth trying those also to be safe.
@CodyMKW i still have my copy of og ruby on gba, pokemon diamond and blue for the gb, no idea if they work still i store them well but thanks to "preservation" methods i'm able to play them easily anyways
@fadedcolors really? omg! maybe i should check my 3ds games later i would hate for them to fail like that.
@SNESuperior same, i have close to 90 gamecube games too
I probably have a slightly different issue. My original cartridge was somehow lost for good a few years ago (and with it the majority of my shinies). I waited a while then bought a new cartridge thinking it was a decent opportunity to playthrough again. Got to the Magma Underwater Hideout only to find it was incredibly unstable. Crashes periodically and could not figure out why.
Edit: Meant Magma hideout not rocket hide out (facepalm). Been that long since i played the game,
My copy of Alpha Sapphire works fine, though I have previously noticed that it struggles to detect my Pokemon Sun cart these days.
Just checked and my day one copy of OR still works fine.
I'm tempted to give my entire 3DS collection a check tomorrow afternoon though.
The batteries for my Blue, Yellow, Silver, Gold and Crystal have all run out. Better check my GBA ones too. Thankfully I’ve long since transferred any rare/favourite Pokémon onto the subsequent games.
@DarkScythe13
It sounds like you’ve bought a fake cartridge as this is the common issue with them. Check some YouTube videos that’ll show you what to look for.
Edit: I’m incorrect cos 3DS games can’t be faked.
Ironically enough, my NA copy of Kirby: Planet Robobot currently throws up an error screen every time it tries to boot, so... possible warning for that game too?
@Desrever That REALY sucks, and I feel you. Do you know what triggered the rot?
@Fandabidozi is this usually the case for cartridges bought from major retailers? I bought mine from JB Hifi here in AUS. Seemed to be no indication of any issues prior to this point. Had looked it up and others apparently had similar issues of crashing previously.
May look more into the youtube side of things as tou suggested as thus far had only looked through various threads.
@Onion I was thinking maybe this is happening to MODDED 3DS Consoles...
Maybe that's what the last 3DS Update was all about...
⚠️After thinking about this, maybe this is happening to MODDED 3DS Consoles...
Maybe that's what the last 3DS Update was all about...
@Kislevi03one Cool story, bro.
#TellUsMore
@Deppasois Just Google Pokemon ORAS Not Working and you'll see this has been happening years sadly.
Persona Q also had this issue that was so widespread Atlus gave digital copies to people that sent their broken carts in.
I don't have many physical 3DS games to check, not even ORAS. In my case what probably needs to be checked is my DS collection. Some of my older carts like Mario Kart DS, Super Mario 64 DS and New Super Mario Bros. problems to be detected by the systems I have, particularly the DS and DSi XL.
Luckily my two Ouendan games don't have this problem.
I threw my copy away a while back so idk whether it works or not. Don't play 3ds anymore anyway.
I don't believe this issue has surfaced in the States, has it?
Edit: Mine still works
@Deppasois
I gave it a test on my unmodded and modded 3DSes with the latest firmware and they work, but mine are NA copies. Anyone with access to PAL copies and modded 3Ds consoles may wanna give it a try and see what happens.
@Zuljaras That doesn't make any sense. I just double checked mine and it's fine. It's been safely in a DS/3DS game case when not in use since it was bought. And before this article I have never heard of this happening to a DS or 3DS game.
I'm not saying you, personally, are lying but I do find this supposed issue very suspect.
Maybe it's some bizarre issue with the PAL region locking.
@weisske Wow!
That's amazing!
@Heavyarms55 I know that is why I am shocked
I checked and this message appears when you put a cartridge from a different region. Unfortunately the problem is in the cartridge itself.
I found and ordered a new one as this will probably eat at my sanity if I leave it like that
@Deppasois Disc rot is very real and it actually doesn't affect original CD's. Disc rots happens on writable CD's that you used on your own CD writers to burn audio and software. The issue is the difference in material to make them writable and them discoloring over time. A lot of my early writable CD's from over 15 years ago have stopped working and are no longer readable. Even though they were stored inside cases in a dark closet, they still discolored over the years and even showing weird discolored spots. Making them no longer readable.
So yeah.... disc rot is very real. Just that it doesn't seem to affect original factory pressed Audio CD's and movie DVD's. They seem to retain their perfect silvery color.
My PAL Omega Ruby cartridge still works.
My PAL copy of Alpha Sapphire still works.
Mine was stolen from me in 8rh grade so I hope my original copy is dead out of spite
Hello. Just tested my PAL copy, launch day, of Omega Ruby. Nothing seems out of place.
@neufel "future retro-gaming". I absolutely love that phrase!
@dugan "future retro-gaming" or as we call it now: gaming
So in my preservation paranoia I tested ALL of my GB, GBC, GBA, DS and 3DS games. They all work and save with the exception of that pesky Alpha Sapphire copy
ORAS came out within a week of Persona Q, I wonder what the chances are of there being a bad batch of 3DS carts around that time, used for ORAS EU and Persona Q US.
@DarkScythe13
I’d never heard of the games having a problem until I read about it yesterday. I bought mine in the UK though so maybe it depends on region? 🤷🏻♂️
Checked my copies of ORAS and both still work fine.
Oh but Backups arent allowed. You cant dump your own game that would be illegal.
Preserving games is illegal guys its bad. It doesnt mstter how anti consumer the manufacturer is.
@Markiemania95 Just keep in Pokemon Box if necessary.
@weisske You threw your copy away? Why didn't you sell it? Lol Are you rich so you can just toss out games when you don't want them anymore?
@Onion Physical may not be forever, but it's still better than digital where you rely on Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo keeping their servers up.
@Jeronan Thank you for clearing that up.
Now that you mentioned it, I remember having a Mega Drive Emulator on a writable CD that had rot on.
However, as YOU say, original CDs wont get rot whereas the INDUSTRY claims they will so they are scaremongering.
@Yorumi Me too! Most of my cartridges are second hand and I did NOT expect my Alpha Sapphire to be corrupted.
Today one of my Yu-Gi-Oh cartridges just stopped working with the message "turn off the power and reinsert the cartridge". I just cleaned it and it worked again.
The weird thing is that my EU Alpha Sapphire is showing the message when you put a different region cart in the system.
I also been having a similar issue but with my DS copy of Kirby's Squeak Squad game... my New Nintendo 3DS XL detects the game but when i select to boot it up it just resets my system so I am unable to play the game...
NA copy of OR booted up just fine. Tomodachi life also works as well. I would note that my copy of Animal Crossing New Leaf has crashed randomly from time to time.
@Zuljaras Then it does sound more and more like a bizarre region lock mistake.
@Lanmanna You mean Pokémon Bank? I don’t have it, nor do I want to pay a subscription fee for it.
@Jeronan @Deppasois originals as well.. I have no idea why it's just my DD and none of the other games.. maybe ware & tear from over use? 😂
I'm not wow sure how to upload images, but you'll see the dots in one of the pictures
https://ibb.co/CngQthf
https://ibb.co/xGcJdC9
My alpha sapphire for the 3ds hasn't worked for about 5 years now
Actually it’s not. It stopped loading a few years ago. It’d start up but I couldn’t get past the Pokémon center before it froze. Cleaned it and everything.ESRB physical version.
@Jooles_95 same thing for me.
@Heavyarms55 People seem to mistake glitch/brick of a cartridge with it dying from corrupted flash memory.
I have yet to encounter someone that has documented a flash memory in a cartridge that died from too many write cycles.
I am excluding those that dropped their cartridges in Coca-Cola.
@Zuljaras I have read a lot of articles about how flash memory is supposed to degrade after a certain amount of use. But now that you mention it, I have only read about how it's supposed to, never about anyone who hit that limit through normal use.
But the way this case is PAL only apparently, that suggests to me it's either a manufacturer error with the PAL cartridges or something related to region locking.
@Heavyarms55 Yep
I await my new copy and I will not think about types of memory and how they are "supposed" to stop working after certain save usage.
@neufel I really hope not ether. I'd hate for some of my favorite games to be unplayable.
I still have my Omega Ruby cartridge ever since 11/29/2014, and since I transferred all of my Pokémon into the later generations, I decided to delete it and restart. And I have not experienced any bugs or other issues with the game.
Mine seems to work fine...
I considered buying this game while it's still available, but now I'm not so sure.
Going all digital is getting richer by the minute
Yeh, Alpha Sapphire (PAL version) is the only cart that's failed for me so far. Barely used too.
I just got it this past Christmas, so it BETTER work.
I wonder if more 3DS carts are affected by this and we are simply unaware as we don't play them as often.
My alpha Sapphire still works and my Omega ruby is the digital copy
@Fandabidozi There aren’t fake 3DS cartridges, only original DS hardware carts were cracked and manufactured.
I thought my copy of AS didn't work a few months ago, but it turned out that I just needed to clean the contacts.
I was proper annoyed with mine. It was working fine, then I accidentally put it in the toaster, spread Nutella on it, ate it, fished it out of the toilet a day later when I realised my mistake (emerging sideways was the first clue...), and after a good wash with some Lynx shower gel it didn't work. Shoddy workmanship, Nintendo! And I still don't have themes on the Switch!
@Multi That is not rot, but damage. Seen it so many times. CD rot is discoloring. It's just a term, not like actual rot like fruit.
The CD/DVD discolors yellow'ish (like you spilled coffee on it or something) and then becomes unreadable.
Like I said before, I have not have this happen to any of my Audio CD's or DVD's. I have old CD's from the end 80's even that still look like new. I only had this happen to writable CD/DVD RAM's that started to discolor after 5-8 years and then stopped being readable.
Conspiracy theory - they made them deteriorate on purpose so everyone must buy Pokemon Home subscriptions
i no longer play games on my Nintendo 3DS so having problems with DS and 3DS don't really bother me that much. thankfully i never ran into the issue at all.
however, i would like some of those games ported over to the Nintendo Switch. two of those games would be Luigi's Mansion dark moon and Super Mario 64 DS.
Tested mine and they work, PAL UK versions for the record.
@Deppasois CDs from 2000? I feel old. I've got music CDs from the '80s which have disc rot. It's very much a thing. I sadly also got a few games (Mega CD mostly) that refuse to boot and I've kept them in immaculate condition.
I got my Alpha Sapphire game when it first came out. The last time I played it was May 8, 2018.
I opened it on my 3DS just now, and everything still works like normal.
@Desrever Game Cube disc rot??? Get out of here!
Seriously: my Metallica Ride The Lightning Album on CD bought in 1990 still works perfectly. I'm from Germany. So maybe it's the moisture in your region. Where are you from? Brazil? Vietnam? Essex?
@rjc-32 @DarkScythe13
Ah, right enough. I’m getting my games mixed up.
American copy here in brand new condition and my copy is dead, but luckily I was able to access to my Pokémon through Pokémon Bank and move them to my copy of Ultra Sun
My copy of Persona Q is fine, my copy of Alpha Saphire is fine, but Omega Ruby is not working. says the same thing. US copy of all and on two different New 3DS XL consoles. All are in excellent condition. Only played it long enough to Beat the Game and put Pokemon into Bank. but now won't even load.
wow that's crazy mine still works though as I bought it back in 2019 on clearance
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