Pokemon COO still won’t apologise for Scarlet & Violet

It's hard to believe it's been a year since Pokemon Scarlet & Violet launched, bringing Gen IX into the world of Pokemon, introducing us to fan-favourites like Fuecoco, and letting us explore the region of Paldea. While there was plenty to love in Scarlet & Violet, there was also plenty to loathe.

November 18, 2022, will be forever etched on our minds as the day Scarlet & Violet launched to less than rapturous applause. Although it became the fastest-selling game in the franchise's lauded history, that success was marred by game-breaking glitches and bugs galore - and no, we don't mean Spidops and Rellor.

Pokemon COO admits mistakes are made

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Speaking to The Guardian, The Pokemon Company COO Takato Utsunomiya has admitted that mistakes were made, telling the outlet, "Regardless of whether we publicly respond, we're always paying very close attention to the feedback and conversations happening in the communities."

He continued, "There are certain aspects where we can’t always be 100% aligned with what parts of the community are asking for and what we want to provide. But we do this with the desire to keep Pokémon going for a very long time, and I believe that the fans and players are aligned with us in that respect."

While Scarlet & Violet glitches ranged from hilarious graphical mishaps to whole save files being deleted, it was hardly the smooth launch we were used to. It's true that Pokemon games have had glitches from the very start - often becoming a beloved part of the titles - but Scarlet & Violet launched in a particularly shoddy state.

Notably, while Utsunomiya acknowledges Scarlet & Violet weren't quite what they could've been, he doesn't openly apologise to those who were let down by Gen IX's debut. Nintendo Canada previously apologised for the game launch, but this is the first time Utsunomiya has spoken out about the botched launch. 

The Indigo Disc can redeem Pokemon Scarlet & Violet 

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Instead of promising to do better in future, Utsunomiya simply promised more games. The mention of a "very long time" hardly has us feeling confident if it's going to be like Scarlet & Violet. As Scarlet & Violet didn't get hit with a sales slump following their release, there's hardly an incentive to do better.

Thankfully, Game Freak has been steadily updating Scarlet & Violet, meaning the games have had something of a Cyberpunk 2077 resurgence. It seems it was simply a case of releasing the games too early. As we saw from The Teal Mask DLC, Game Freak can deliver a polished game.

Much like The Teal Mask was praised as a return to form, there are high hopes that The Indigo Disc will be another banger when we head to the Blueberry Academy in December. Whether Scarlet & Violet can end on a high remains to be seen, but at least the games are doing better than they were initially.