The nightmare of neverending bad press for Pokémon Sword and Shield just won’t stop, it seems.
Officially released today, the Switch exclusives have already been bombarded with negativity over the last several months, thanks to Game Freak’s removal of the series’ popular National Dex feature, but now? The developer will assuredly be looking into securing a top-tier PR firm to handle what’s fast becoming a complete fiasco.
Shortly before launch, the studio was accused of telling barefaced lies in relation to its reasons for bringing back less than half the entire Pokédex, an issue that has ultimately prompted fans to boycott the games in protest. Just as that ruckus was showing signs of abating, though, the discovery of an egregious bug affecting digital copies of the pair have served only to reignite the fire, so to speak.
And now, clearly looking for new outlets to vent their frustration, some fans have resorted to review bombing.
The image above, grabbed earlier today, has Sword and Shield‘s user review score as 3.6, a far cry from the critic score of 81. As of writing, however, the former has dropped even lower to 3.3 as more and more outraged fans continue to pour in en masse. As always, it’s worth pointing out that user scores on Metacritic require no proof of purchase, making it all too easy for any disgruntled fan to jump on the bandwagon.
This latest development will no doubt spark, yet again, a debate over the credibility of user reviews when scores can be skewed so easily, especially when a wealth of said ‘reviews’ are little more than a one-sentence rant. Game Freak undoubtedly deserves to face some tough questions over some of the choices its made for Pokémon Sword and Shield, but this isn’t the way to go about achieving a healthy dialogue between consumer and creator.