Pokemon Scarlet and Violet streamers are receiving DMCA strikes over the song featuring Ed Sheeran. This is yet another chapter in the brief journey of the franchise's newest games, which have been plagued by various issues and complaints.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet introduce players to Generation 9 Pokemon. The games are set in the new Paldea region which is an open world and has three storylines that the player can follow. This gives Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players a wealth of content to explore on their journey to becoming a Pokemon Master. The game also brings new features such as Koraidon and Miraidon, Pokemon that serve as mounts, and the Terastal phenomenon. Another new feature is Ed Sheeran's music in the game, which has been causing problems on Twitch.
Players who are finishing the game are finding that Ed Sheeran's song "Celestial" plays during the end credits, which is turning into DMCA strikes. On November 22 the streamer aDrive was one of the first to mention that he had received a copyright strike from the label. The streamer warned other creators who are about to finish the game soon about the problem, that they should not stream the end credits with music. The platform's problem with DMCA is not new, and has already yielded situations such as streamers banned without Twitch indicating the content.
"Celestial" caused divided reactions among Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players on social media, and while there were players who enjoyed the song, others were not as receptive to Ed Sheeran's collaboration with The Pokemon Company. The day the games were released also saw the official release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's first mod to remove "Celestial" from the game.
Last year Back 4 Blood received backlash for including licensed music without a "stream safe" option. This type of feature allows players to disable music from games to avoid copyright issues, with Fortnite being a prime example of a game that has this feature.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet for their part continues to face a wave of controversies that are leading the games to be review bombed. The games are being criticized mainly because of performance problems, bugs, and glitches, which have caused moments like Psyduck to spawn in random situations.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.