Nintendo has announced that it will fix a Nintendo eShop error that allowed players to get "free" Hyrule Warriors Expansion items without properly purchasing the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Expansion Pass.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has been out for a little while now and Nintendo recently announced plans for new content beyond what's in the base game. New content coming in the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Expansion Pass was revealed late last month aside from new characters, this Expansion Pass will introduce new enemies, new challenges, and a set of bonus equipment for Link.
The "Prototype Ancient" bonus for purchasing the pass turned out to be a problem for some players — a Nintendo eShop error made the bonus content briefly available for download for anyone who was quick enough to get it. Unfortunately, this also gave the impression that players somehow scored the Expansion Pass for free, too. That's not the case, and now Nintendo has announced how it's going to fix it.
How Nintendo is Fixing the 'Free' Hyrule Warriors Expansion Items Bug
Nintendo has revealed how it will fix the free Hyrule Warriors Expansion items that some players managed to get due to an eShop bug. Unfortunately, those who took advantage of this bug might have to wait until launch day to buy the Expansion Pass.
"Unfortunately, an error on Nintendo eShop led to the Purchase Bonus being briefly made available to all users," read an e-mail from Nintendo highlighted on Reddit and in a tweet from Nintendeal. "Furthermore, downloading the Purchase Bonus without buying the Expansion Pass gave the impression that the Expansion Pass was then purchased, when this is not the case. As you are one of the users affected, we'd like to apologise for this error."
Gamers who got their hands on the bonus content for the Expansion Pass will continue to be able to use it. However, they are also unable to actually purchase the Expansion Pass due to this bug. Nintendo's fix is to let players continue to use the bonus content for now, but that will change once Wave 1 of the Expansion Pass actually launches sometime later in June 2021.
"[...][ once Expansion Pass Wave 1 – Pulse of the Ancients becomes available, these items will no longer be usable unless the Expansion Pass is purchased," the Nintendo e-mail continued. "This will not affect your save file or ability to play the game."
This isn't the only trouble with software that Nintendo has had lately; Nintendo Switch Update 12.0.3 pulled yesterday following some sort of error. Nintendo has since resumed distribution of Update 12.0.3 as reported on Reddit. Based on what we know, this appeared to be an error with Nintendo's servers, so you probably don't have anything to worry about whether you've downloaded the update or not.
What do you think about the situation surrounding the free Hyrule Warriors Expansion items bug? Who do you think will be the new characters introduced in the Expansion Pass? Let us know in the comments below!
