Pokemon Sword and Shield's first expansion pass, The Isle of Armor, launched this week with new content for players to enjoy including a new regional Pokedex and a feature allowing Pokemon to follow trainers while on the island. According to Nintendo, some players have had trouble accessing the DLC because they may have purchased the wrong version of the expansion pass.
When The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra were first announced, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company warned players that the expansion passes corresponded to either Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield, preempting any issues that might come about with a Sword player buying the Shield version pass and vice versa. However, five months later it seems these prophesied issues have come about, given the Nintendo of America Twitter account posted a warning against making this mistake today.
The Nintendo of Japan customer service Twitter put out a similar warning before the DLC's launch, with the American social media account further adding that players can contact customer support for assistance. Though it may seem trivial or overly complicated to have two different versions of the pass, there are differences between the Isle of Armor in Sword and Shield such as unique rival characters and version-exclusive Pokemon.
While the first piece of the expansion has been largely successful at implementing and updating content players felt should have been included in the base game, the reception has not been perfect — even disregarding issues with confusing which version to buy. Some feel the Sword and Shield DLC has too short of a story to warrant its price tag, though it will be supplemented with The Crown Tundra later this year.
For those who have decided not to buy into the games' DLC, there is still updating content in Sword and Shield through unique Max Raid Battles. To correspond with The Isle of Armor's release, an event featuring Mythical Pokemon Zeraora has started appearing in Wild Area dens, and if enough players are successful at tackling the Electric-type then all of them will receive a shiny variant.
Beyond The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra, Pokemon is preparing to do quite a bit going forward. During a Pokemon Presents video last week, it was announced that New Pokemon Snap is coming to the Switch, and fans of the franchise can look forward to another big announcement coming on June 24.
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are available now for Nintendo Switch.