Metroid Dread is very polished and well-made game, but is not perfect, as a late-game bug has caused many players' games to crash. Fortunately, Nintendo is aware of this Metroid Dread error and is currently working on an update to address it.
In the week or so that Metroid Dread has been available, many stories, good and bad, have come out about the game. For example, Metroid Dread broke the franchise's sales record for highest-grossing launch, eclipsing the seminal GameCube title, Metroid Prime. Many of Nintendo's longrunning series have broken sales milestones on the Switch thanks to the console's large install base as well as Nintendo's marketing campaigns for its major games. More negatively though, it appears that some of Metroid Dread's developers were omitted from the game's credits leaving them frustrated with the lack of recognition for their work.
In addition, Metroid Dread has a pretty large game-crashing error, but Nintendo is aware of it and already working on a fix. "The software was closed because an error occurred," the error notice reads, appearing when players destroy a specific late-game door while a map marker is present on it, and forcibly closing the game. On its official customer support page, Nintendo states, "We are preparing a software update to prevent this error, which should be available in October 2021." With instances in Metroid Dread where it is sometimes unclear where to go next, this is one door for now that may be better off avoided for now, unless one follows Nintendo's tips.
Following the announcement of an incoming Metroid Dread update, Nintendo provides a guide for how to avoid this error from occurring in the meantime. It is really a pretty simple fix: players afflicted by this crash should "restart the game and, before playing through this sequence, remove the door icon map marker." Once the Metroid Dread update comes out later this month, upon downloading it, the problem should be rectified, and players shouldn't have to disable their map markers. Metroid Dread can be a pretty hard game as it is without game-breaking glitches like this one.
It is comforting to see Nintendo respond so quickly to this error after fan outcries for support. In some cases, developers can be pretty ambiguous regarding updates and fixes, that "the problem will be resolved in a later patch." One must consider how common a glitch this must really be for Nintendo to issue a formal temporary fix while its update is pending. Metroid Dread's final boss is one of the best encounters in the game, and breaking a random door should not stop players from experiencing it.
Metroid Dread is available now on Nintendo Switch.
