The new Pokémon game – Sword and Shield – is released this week, but how do you get it on your Switch so you can play immediately rather than wait ages for it to download? We explain how to get it pre-loaded and ready.
Although the Switch takes cartridges, you can get Sword and Shield in a digital format so you don’t need to wait for the postman to deliver the game on release day. As the game is released on 15 November, you probably want to play at midnight.
Waiting for multiple gigabytes of data to download isn’t fun so you’ll want to get the game downloaded ahead of time.
Simply head to the Nintendo eShop and pre-order the download version. This will allow you to get the game, well, downloaded in advance. You can download to your system immediately but the content isn’t playable until 15 November.
Your biggest choice is whether to buy the Sword or Shield edition.
Also bear in mind that the price for a physical version in a box is a little cheaper – £44.99 on Amazon for example rather than £49.99.
Read our Pokémon Sword and Shield hands-on preview from E3 2019.
