Pokémon Sword and Shield were launched for the Nintendo Switch on November 15 to positive reviews from players and critics alike.
According to some reports, the games seem to cause a few problems for those who use Roku devices. A user mentioned that his Roku device started to act strange, and a quick search on social media revealed that a large number of people had been affected by the problems. Many believed that the issue was caused by a recent update.
However, it seems that the problem was caused by Pokémon Sword and Shield. When the wife of the user started to play the game the Roku device crashed. The problem was fixed by activating airplane mode on the Nintendo Switch while the game was played.
This solution appears to be quite good as the Roku device booted without a problem and remained usable during the day. As the user and his wife were familiar with software development they explored the problem. With the help of an open-source tool the couple discovered that after the game is started, the console will constantly look for other Switch units that play the game. The repeated attempts will force Roku devices to crash and enter a boot loop while it tries to read the requests send by the Nintendo Switch.
Roku is aware of the issue and has stated that select models seem to be affected by the glitch. The company has also advised users to try the airplane mode trick or to turn the console off completely until the problem is fixed via a patch.
The problem with Roku devices is the latest issue that joins a list of controversies related to the latest Pokémon games. Many players were disappointed by the fact that they cannot import all of the older Pokémon in the game and limit the number of Pokémon that are available in the game.