The Pokémon Company announced a series of sanctions towards users who have been illegally modifying their save data in Pokémon Sword and Shield. In an update posted on its website, the company said that using altered data in saves can impact the game for other users, as well as cause bugs with the software itself. As a result, The Pokémon Company warned that players modifying their save data could be banned from being able to use Sword and Shield's online functionalities. Other sanctions could also include being unable to transfer Pokémon to and from the Pokémon Home app, and being banned from using the Switch version.