TOKYO, April 16, 2026, 00:14 JST
Nintendo pushed out version 1.6.1 of its Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics app for Switch 2 on Wednesday, addressing a bug that made Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness crash mid-game. The fix comes after the glitch was reported by the company’s Japanese support account back on March 24. The update, according to the same account, takes care of the shutdown issue.
This is significant—Nintendo had cautioned that players risked losing saved progress from sessions hit by the glitch, not just dealing with the hassle of a crash. That’s a notable issue for an RPG that only landed on the service last month. The GameCube catalog itself? That’s limited to Switch 2 users who pay up for the Expansion Pack subscription tier.
The patch goes beyond simple upkeep. Nintendo is betting on its retro libraries to boost the paid appeal of Switch 2, especially with analysts questioning whether major new exclusives will keep coming. “Despite a lack of exclusive blockbusters, Switch 2 sold like hotcakes over the holidays,” Serkan Toto, founder of Kantan Games, told Reuters in February. Sony touts a Classics Catalog for PlayStation Plus, while Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass offers a lineup of 500+ titles and day-one drops. Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Nintendo’s support sites for the U.S., U.K., and Australia continued to list the bug as “under investigation” this day. Players were advised to create a Suspend Point—a type of save state within the app—since game progress saved during a crash risked being lost. Nintendo Support
Japan’s update notice for version 1.6.1 was more limited, just saying the rollout was underway and confirming only the fix for the Pokémon XD forced-close bug. No further adjustments were mentioned in the support text.
This March, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness landed on Nintendo’s GameCube roster, as the company rolled it out specifically for Expansion Pack subscribers. Nintendo maintains that Switch 2 remains the only place for GameCube classics. The library? Still expanding.
But one thing remains unresolved. The regional support notices hadn’t matched the Japanese fix message yet, so it was uncertain if those updates were just delayed, or if Nintendo was continuing to monitor for rare crashes post-patch.
Nintendo’s strategy is clear enough. The Expansion Pack, which rolls up GameCube, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and other retro libraries into a subscription, keeps pulling in recurring revenue. Still, Wednesday’s update highlighted something else: stability for older games can be just as critical as tossing in fresh ones. Nintendo maintains that more classic titles are on the way, but its support pages don’t mention when the next GameCube release will land.
