Topic: Nintendo Confirms Pokémon X and Y Save Data Bug, Outlines Solutions

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

A fix is on the way, but for now, players are advised to check Nintendo's guide to bypass this glitch.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/35773

Nintendo has acknowledged that there is a save data corruption bug in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y and is currently preparing a solution for it.

Many reports have appeared online since the game's worldwide launch on October 12 from players who were experiencing issues upon loading their file after saving their progress in Lumiose City. The glitch will cause the game to not respond to any control input once it has been reloaded.

A free application will be released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in the near future that will allow players to recover their game data. In the meantime, Nintendo has published a detailed diagram on how the glitch can be avoided, which is shown below.

[pokepal148]

A save data corruption bug? where can I find that pokemon? is it a bug type? i'd better bring some net balls,

All jokes aside it's a good thing they addressed this problem but what about that save ID issue animal crossing has had?

[Ian Sane]

When I found out about this I had last saved in Lumiose but I had saved in the Pokémon Center so I dodged a bullet there.

Skyward Sword had an issue like this as well but I really can't say that Nintendo has slacked off on their QA.  I can't specifically call them out anyway as consoles devs in general have slacked off now that they have the ability to patch their games.  That functionality is nice for fixing bugs but when there was no way to fix console game bugs we didn't seem to have as many bugs to fix.  Ironically the mechanism to fix bugs has made console games more buggy.

But that everyone doing it is a weak excuse.  The whole industry should get better at this, Nintendo included.

[alegoicoe]

The same glitch happen to me where everything on screen was running but controls were unresponsive while using poke amie.

[ClexYoshi]

I had learned about this recording a podcast with a group of acquaintances that I was guest-starring on their show. I had saved in Luminose City turning on the PSS, but thankfully didn't bite the bullet.

What I would like to talk about though is just how much the optimization is in this game and how rushed it feels in some regards.

The frame rate in this game tends to take sharp dives all over the place. I actually use full-on 3D during super training because the game chugs and it's like getting free bullet time. Any time a pokemon battle goes to that cutaway where it shows both pokemon from the front, it again dips. certain pokemon cause more frame rate choppiness then others. this all gets enhanced whenever you have 3D on. Between this, the relatively small roster of new pokemon, and the odd way the game handles the stereoscopic effect and when it seems to be able to be turned on and off, I think this game miiight have been a tad bit on the rushed side to garner some quick dosh.

[Oblivion]

When I found out about this I had last saved in Lumiose but I had saved in the Pokémon Center so I dodged a bullet there.

Skyward Sword had an issue like this as well but I really can't say that Game Freak has slacked off on their QA.  I can't specifically call them out anyway as consoles devs in general have slacked off now that they have the ability to patch their games.  That functionality is nice for fixing bugs but when there was no way to fix console game bugs we didn't seem to have as many bugs to fix.  Ironically the mechanism to fix bugs has made console games more buggy.

But that everyone doing it is a weak excuse.  The whole industry should get better at this, Game Freak included.

For the last fucking time, you are getting the wrong devs here.

[nickmitch]

I actually realized that I hadn't been saving regularly until I heard about this glitch.

Glad to know Nintendo is on it. I hope the game itself can be patched and the app is just to get the save data back.

[broodwars]

When I found out about this I had last saved in Lumiose but I had saved in the Pokémon Center so I dodged a bullet there.

Skyward Sword had an issue like this as well but I really can't say that Game Freak has slacked off on their QA.  I can't specifically call them out anyway as consoles devs in general have slacked off now that they have the ability to patch their games.  That functionality is nice for fixing bugs but when there was no way to fix console game bugs we didn't seem to have as many bugs to fix.  Ironically the mechanism to fix bugs has made console games more buggy.

But that everyone doing it is a weak excuse.  The whole industry should get better at this, Game Freak included.

For the last fucking time, you are getting the wrong devs here.

This is a Nintendo game, and I know from personal experience that Nintendo has some of the most anal retentive certification testing of any company in the industry. This is a Nintendo-published game from a Nintendo-owned developer. Nintendo should have caught this in Cert, but they slacked off...as seems to be the case lately with Nintendo. Metroid Other M, Skyward Sword, Mario & Luigi Dream Team, and now Pokemon X/Y as well all have had game-breaking bugs, and that's on Nintendo.

[Ian Sane]

Game Freak is part of Nintendo.  All they do is make games for Nintendo.  All criticism towards them can thus be attributed towards Nintendo.  I'm getting jack **** wrong.  You're just being a stickler.

Besides it isn't like the dev can leave in all the bugs they want and the publisher is powerless to stop it.  Ultimately every game published by Nintendo has to have gotten their okay.

[Ceric]

What makes it worse is that by my understanding that is someplace you have to come back to multiple times.  You think a tester or 20 would have ran into it.

[Ian Sane]

What makes it worse is that by my understanding that is someplace you have to come back to multiple times.  You think a tester or 20 would have ran into it.

Testers don't play the game like a normal player would so they wouldn't be returning to that one area again and again and probably wouldn't save as frequently as a real player.  There also might be certain conditions like what Pokémon you have or your outfit or if you're online or whatever.  I don't think it's as simple as "save here and it fucks up".

[Ceric]

What makes it worse is that by my understanding that is someplace you have to come back to multiple times.  You think a tester or 20 would have ran into it.

Testers don't play the game like a normal player would so they wouldn't be returning to that one area again and again and probably wouldn't save as frequently as a real player.  There also might be certain conditions like what Pokémon you have or your outfit or if you're online or whatever.  I don't think it's as simple as "save here and it fucks up".

Stand by my statement.  If you know players are going to be their a lot it should get tested a lot.

[broodwars]

What makes it worse is that by my understanding that is someplace you have to come back to multiple times.  You think a tester or 20 would have ran into it.

Testers don't play the game like a normal player would so they wouldn't be returning to that one area again and again and probably wouldn't save as frequently as a real player.

AS a former tester, NO they don't save as frequently as a real player. They save more frequentlyin every area multiple times to makes sure there aren't any issues, even if there is no conceivable way a player would trigger it. I was once testing sign-ins/sign-outs in XBox Live on a title I was working on. One time, I performed a sign-in/out 50 times in a row & triggered a crash caused by a memory leak. No player would ever trigger that issue unless they literally never turned their console off. It was still found and inadvertently fixed.

Nintendo's testers are very good at what they do. I have a hard time believing this wasn't a Known Shippable.

[Ian Sane]

What makes it worse is that by my understanding that is someplace you have to come back to multiple times.  You think a tester or 20 would have ran into it.

Testers don't play the game like a normal player would so they wouldn't be returning to that one area again and again and probably wouldn't save as frequently as a real player.

AS a former tester, NO they don't save as frequently as a real player. They save more frequentlyin every area multiple times to makes sure there aren't any issues, even if there is no conceivable way a player would trigger it. I was once testing sign-ins/sign-outs in XBox Live on a title I was working on. One time, I performed a sign-in/out 50 times in a row & triggered a crash caused by a memory leak. No player would ever trigger that issue unless they literally never turned their console off. It was still found and inadvertently fixed.

Nintendo's testers are very good at what they do. I have a hard time believing this wasn't a Known Shippable.

If it's a Known Shippable then why are we waiting for a fix?  This is a major game breaking bug so if Nintendo knowingly shipped the game with it they should have known it would come up and a fix would need to be released, so why wouldn't they have that fix ready to go?  If I was cutting corners to make a release date I would have the patch ready ASAP.  So Nintendo either didn't know or they did but waited until it was actually found to start working on a fix or they knew and have a fix ready but are holding it back for some reason.  I think ignorance is probably the cause as the worldwide release date would have put extra pressure on the team.

It is not encouraging however that there have been multiple Nintendo titles in the last few years to offer game breaking bugs when there was a time when Nintendo games pretty much never had such problems.

[Luigi Dude]

This is the problem with a worldwide release.  Most of the Japanese versions of the Pokemon games have always had some kind of major bug in them at release.  Because the games were released months later in the West, the bugs would be fixed by then.  Since this is the first Pokemon game released in the West the same time as Japan, it's no surprise we're getting the same kind of bugs the Japanese have experienced for a long time now.

All the people saying this is a new thing at Nintendo don't know localization history.  The Japanese versions of Nintendo games have always had more bugs that got fixed when released overseas.  In recent years though, Nintendo has released more games in the West first or at the same time as Japan, which has lead to more bugs getting out here, where in the past the earlier Japanese releases would always catch them before our versions came out.

[Ian Sane]

Luigi Dude's point about localization makes a lot of sense.  The first time I recall encountering something like this from Nintendo was Metroid Prime, which was released in North America first.

[Mop it up]

That functionality is nice for fixing bugs but when there was no way to fix console game bugs we didn't seem to have as many bugs to fix.

A statement like this completely ignores the fact that games are a whole lot more complicated to program than they were during the NES and SNES era. These days, there's so much more that can go wrong, and so much more to check, it would take such a long time for testers to find everything which would make it impossible to still release games in a timely manner. Not that I'm trying to excuse glitches like this, but this is the reality of increased technology.

Secondly, let's not pretend that Nintendo games have never had glitches before. Go look up the number of glitches in games like Super Metroid and Ocarina of Time, and the lists are staggering. Some of those are game-breaking as well; you can permanently mess up all your saves in Super Metroid if you equip both the Spazer and Plasma beam at the same time and fire it in certain areas of the game.