A lot of bad things have been said about Sword and Shield these past few weeks, but the rumor that the games will brick your Switch just isn't true.
Despite it still being less than a week since the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield, it feels as if the games have been on the market for months. That's due to all of the buzz surrounding them in the build-up to their release, most of which was pretty negative —the reveal that players wouldn't be able to catch every single Pokémon didn't go down too well.
The revelation led to some players going after the game's developers, finding things wrong with Sword and Shield before playing the games. There was even a movement to boycott the titles, as those disappointed with the reduced Pokédex urged people to refrain from buying them.
That doesn't seem to have worked as Sword and Shield have enjoyed the best launch on Switch to date, beating the record set by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. However, the Game Freak-bashing continues, and has actually reached a point where it has gone too far —players obsessed with seeing the games fail have resorted to telling lies about them in a last-ditch attempt to get the boycott movement off the ground.
The fabricated rumor was that Game Freak had utilized a portion of the Switch's hardware in a way that it wasn't designed, a necessary move to stabilize gameplay in the Wild Area. Using that part of the Switch apparently meant it would eventually give up the ghost, and eventually brick your system. According to SimonTime on Twitter, there is no truth to that rumor whatsoever.
"There is no obscure life-limited hardware part of the Switch, you can keep enjoying Pokémon Sword & Shield without any brick risk," the Twitter user wrote. It's urban myths such as these that can do a game's sales some real damage if they gain any traction. The good thing about social media is that if caught early enough, they can be stopped at the source. However, if there were no social media, the failed attempt to boycott Sword and Shield would never have been started in the first place.
Source: Twitter