With the release of The Indigo Disk, many Pokémon Scarlet & Violet fans have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of a performance patch. The performance patch from The Pokémon Company was meant to help offer several graphic improvements to the game on the Nintendo Switch.
The Pokémon Company had initially promised they would release a performance patch at some point, close to the launch of Scarlet and Violet, when fans originally shared their complaints. With The Indigo Disk out in the wild, fans are curious if The Pokémon Company provided this promise. Does Pokémon Scarlet and Violet‘s The Indigo Disk come with a performance patch?
Related: Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: The 10 Worst Shinies
Did The Indigo Disk Get a Performance Patch?
After all this time, we regret to inform the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet community that a performance patch did not launch with the release of The Indigo Disk and its Ver. 3.0.0 update as performance issues were not addressed in the patch notes. Early previewers who had the chance to get their hands on The Indigo Disk before launch foreshadowed as much, previously commenting on several framerate problems with their review build.
For many Pokémon S&V fans, it’s a disappointing revelation. The Indigo Disk was the last, real chance for The Pokémon Company to follow through on their initial comments that they had planned to give the base game a performance patch with the hopes of improving the heavily criticized framerate and graphical issues on the Nintendo Switch. When Scarlet & Violet launched in November 2022, many Pokémon fans and communities were in an uproar about how badly their game played, pushing many to request a refund.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Indigo Disk Ver. 3.0.0 Patch Notes
While it can’t exactly be called a performance patch, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet did receive a general update with the release of The Indigo Disk on December 13, 2023. The update mostly serves to add in The Indigo Disk DLC along with all its returning Pokémon, but a couple minor bugs were also addressed.
Below are the full patch notes shared on Nintendo’s Support page:
Release of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk for Pokémon Scarlet or Pokémon Violet
Trainers who have purchased The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero will now be able to enjoy adventures in Part 2: The Indigo Disk.
Additional Pokémon
For Trainers who have not purchased The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, additional Pokémon may appear via local or online communication modes.
Feature Adjustments
- The difficulty of the Ogre Oustin’ minigame has been adjusted.
Bug Fixes
- We have fixed a bug that resulted in the Hospitality Ability causing unintended behavior in certain situations.
- The effects of the Protosynthesis and Quark Drive Abilities will no longer occur while the Neutralizing Gas Ability is in effect.
- Other select bug fixes have been implemented.
How is The Indigo Disk’s Performance?
Without mincing words, The Indigo Disk still performs like hot garbage. There have been little to no major improvements to Pokémon Scarlet & Violet since its release in 2022, and that continues to be the case. You’ll still see poor performance across the board in The Indigo Disk with frame rates that drop to an agonizing crawl, constant pop-in, and rough textures that make the game look horribly outdated. Luckily, The Indigo Disk doesn’t reduce the fidelity of Scarlet & Violet‘s base game, but you also shouldn’t expect any kind of improvement here.
Will There Be a Performance Patch for The Indigo Disk?
After the initial previewers had said that the performance in The Indigo Disk had no improvements from the base game, I’m left unsurprised. If The Pokémon Company hasn’t released a performance patch throughout the past year leading up to The Teal Mask or The Indigo Disk, I don’t see a reason for them to add it in for their final DLC. At this point, they’re already looking forward to, and likely working on their next big Pokémon title release.
Unfortunately, the Pokémon Company did not follow through with performance improvement, and the players must pay the price. Hopefully, with the next release of a future Pokémon game, this won’t happen. We have games like Tears of the Kingdom that make gigantic worlds to explore with little to no issues. Fans should hope to see this level of quality in the future. Although one of the biggest gripes Pokémon players typically have historically revolves around a game’s outdated graphics and performance, Scarlet & Violet took it to a new level.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s The Indigo Disk DLC will receive another update on January 11, 2024, adding an epilogue to the DLC. We don’t yet know everything this update will include other than a new story scenario introducing a new mythical Pokémon but don’t hold your breath for any kind of performance improvement.
