In the lead-up to the release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet next month, The Pokémon Company has announced it will end support for specific online services in the previous generation of games Pokémon Sword and Shield.
As explained via Serebii.net, the "Wild Area news" is set to receive a final update on 1st November, which will add Pokémon not regularly available like Gigantamax Snorlax.
Battle Stadium's ranked season will also no longer be updated after 1st November, and these results will no longer be featured in the mobile and Switch application Pokémon HOME. Online competitions will conclude as well.
Friendly competitions will still be available, but won't display in Home from December 1st, and Y-Comm features and "other online features" will apparently still be accessible. If we hear any other updates about this, we'll let you know.
Comments 16
Sad for those who still use and enjoy those features. But no surprise.
Out with old, in with the new.
I’m so ready for violet/scarlet… I’m hoping it grabs me like Omega/Alpha and Sun/Moon!
Makes sense. They’re moving to newer pastures.
Wonder if this locks out any pokes? Been awhile since I’d played, never got around to doing the expansion, but started working on it recently…. Couldn’t remember if Wild Area updates just made rarer pokes spawn in dens, or what exactly…. If it was unique pokes too then it really sucks… oh well, getting Violet and Scarlet in Nov too, so not a huge deal.
They did this for X/Y whenever Sun & Moon were about to come out but it is still quite sad all the same. They may have been derided by the fandom but SwSh will probably be the most important Pokemon game I've ever played after BW for getting me into both the competitive and shiny hunting aspect of this series, two parts that have made the general Pokemon experience even more fun than it was before. Thanks for everything SwSh 🥲
I gave VGC a miss this Gen due to playing other games, ok mostly WoW, but really keen to jump back in with Scr/Vlt.
@Dm9982 I'm 99% sure this wouldn't lock any pokemon out. Nothing in a den can't be found in the overworld (albeit with horrible odds)
@Dm9982 Doesn't lock out any Pokemon AFAIK since the paid DLC allows you to transform a normal Pokemon to its Gigantamax form.
Why can't they just put the "Wild Area News Update" on an automatic random rotation? Just to keep the game interesting for people that still play it and/or doing a rerun later on.
The other features I understand, as competitive matches/events will move on to the new game.
It is a shame it didn't went out with a bang or something like the event shiny zeraora from a while ago, but it is what it is I guess.
@MrPerson0 Thanks! Wasn’t sure what all the DLC did as, even till now, I’ve tried to remain spoiler free, but that’s one thing I’m glad to know. Don’t mind spoilers involving stuff when it comes to easing EV/IV, Leveling, Hatching, Gigantimax, etc…
@ManxMan64 Thanks, wasn’t sure, but thought all Wild Update did was shuffle / boost chances for pokes that already spawned in the dens. I truly hate when games lock content behind online event shuffling, like Monster Hunter World and such. Cause when the service/servers eventually go down, so will the events. Somehow, it’s more of a tease than limited events for codes at retailers.
@Fizza Competitive play in SWSH was some of the most satisfying and also well-populated. The single player campaign was mediocre and people complained about the graphical fidelity, but I'm just gonna go ahead and say I loved the art design. And the expansions were frankly amazing.
@demacho Absolutely hit the nail on the head for me as well. SwSh's main single player was probably one of the worst in the series (fantastic characters in a garbage story) but competitive was incredibly fun and endeared me to mons I never in a million years thought I'd like (Poliwrath, Turtonator, Sawk, etc.), egg shiny hunting has never been as easy to do as it is now and the DLC's, like you said, were utterly brilliant additions. I've put 550 hours into Shield and I can definitely see myself coming back even after SV comes out!
@Dm9982 Shouldn't lockout any Pokemon. What will probably happen is Wild Area events will no longer happen and distribution events won't happen in the future.
You should still be able to Raid with friends and battle online.
I used to play Raids so often with my friends along with Endless Dynamax Adventures too and whenever a Shiny came up we all just screamed the house down. Looking forward to more magical moments like this in Scarlet and Violet.
Seems like they're dropping online features earlier and earlier now.
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