Pokemon Sword and Shield fans lobby for cloud saves after 700-hour files are stolen


The Pokémon community is again calling for Game Freak and Nintendo to implement cloud saving for Pokémon Sword and Shield after a longtime player lost over 700 hour's worth of work when their Switch was stolen on the London Underground.

In a post entitled "To Nintendo From a Long time player", u/TheFoolman detailed how after they were robbed on the Tube, they were able to restore the save data for many of their games on a new console, except on Pokémon Shield.

Save Data Cloud backup is available on the Switch via Nintendo Switch Online membership, with the service recently coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons through the 'Island Backup Restoration Services' feature.

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Trainer loses 700-hour's worth of work after Switch stolen

Posted on r/Pokemon, u/TheFoolman created a post venting their frustrations at the lack of cloud date for Pokémon Sword and Shield.

"I’ve spent thousands of hours in total in the previous gens training, breeding and collecting everything I could," started u/TheFoolman. "This game has been no exception."

After racking up over 700 hours in Pokémon Shield, the player perfectly IV and EV trained over 60 different Pokémon, transferring their best Pokemon from previous games via Pokémon Home.

However, after the player had their "bag snatched from me forcibly with my Switch inside," they have since lost all of their work and Pokémon. After ordering a new Switch, they redownloaded the save data for other Nintendo games, only to find out Nintendo does not offer cloud support for Pokémon Shield.

"I got robbed, everything was replaceable, except my time in that game. Everything I built and strove for. It seems childish to be crushed about a game, but I have a stressful job and use this game to unwind and feel good about myself. And everything is gone because Pokémon Shield doesn’t support cloud saves."

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Pokemon community offers support to trainer, calls on Nintendo to implement cloud saves

u/TheFoolman received immense support on the Pokémon Reddit, with the post currently sitting at over 10,200 upvotes.

Fans have also expressed their frustration at the lack of cloud support for Pokémon Shield. u/Zoomsmz vented their anger at the situation, stating "Having no cloud save support in a game in 2020 is f****** ridiculous, sorry for your loss man."

Others called on the player to write to Nintendo, or post on the company's official social media channels. "Bring it to the attention of many people, let them do the same. It worked for Animal Crossing. It might work here, too.," said u/GlitchParrot.

However, some fans pointed out the lack of cloud save support was to prevent players from exploiting and hacking the save files, a problem that continues to divide the Pokémon community, both casual and competitive.

The original poster responded to this point, saying "I do find it funny that they won’t implement cloud saves apparently due to it being too easy to exploit by hackers. Which has caused someone like me, who has never hacked or cheated apart from Missingno glitch, to consider turning to hacking."

u/TheFoolman posted an update thanking the community for the support and offers to trade them new Pokémon, but also expressed that they "will likely take a hiatus from the game after this."

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