Pokémon Support Explains What Happens When Your Premium Home Plan Expires

Good to know the Pokémon won't be deleted once the subscription ends. I've purchased a year subscription yesterday and it's working reasonably well on the Switch. On iOS I had some problems connecting my Nintendo account, but after manually entering my Nintendo account username and password it worked. (Normally I use a password manager). And after that it crashed at certain points / randomly.

Also they updated the iOS app late yesterday as well with "bugfixes" so it might be fixed now.

WHAT?!!!

BANK Pokémon get deleted?!!!

I've got to withdraw all of my mons asap as I haven't updated my subscription for quite a long while as I couldn't trust TPCi to do good on their word that they would allow our Pokémon to be transferred throughout the years.

My understanding was that Pokémon can still be withdrawn, but no longer deposited. Considering that it would have been about 2 years since my last pass lapsed, they're probably all gone by now. To think that I've paid money for their so-called "service" too.

What the hell good is a "certain period of time"?! What the hell does that even mean?

Last I checked, my mons were still there, but it's probably been over a year since I last checked.

It's good to know that they wont be deleted if you are using the service and forget to renew. It means you can spend 3 bucks for a month and then forget about it until the next game comes out and pay another 3 bucks and your collection is still there waiting.

There's no reason to pay the yearly fee unless you think you'll actually be using it regularly for that year.

Oh, but I'm sure we'll still get all the "outrage" regardless.

Good to know they won't be deleted. I'll be on auto renew, so I shouldn't have to worry.

still cant link my Nintendo account on Iphone so useless....

Hmm, i didnt know about that being the case for pokebank (the time limit before theyre erased).

Hopefully that limit does not apply to Home. The thing is with gen 7 and pokebank, you could theoretically send them onto any cartridge and theyd be safe. With Home atm, there are limits on what you can send to Sword or Shield meaning if such a limitation existed you would have no choice but to pay to keep them from being erased.

@hanp01 if it happens when you put your password in enter the password manually not using password manager and it will work

Just imported all my Pokemon from a long-abandoned Pokemon Bank and it worked fine. It's at least a couple of years since I paid for a sub and I didn't even need a 3ds (good job, as I sold it about 6 months ago as it was just gathering dust) as the NNID is linked to my Nintendo account. Unfortunately, there were no particularly good Pokemon in the Bank

Thankfully my Pokémon are still there. Most of them were part of my attempt to put together a living Dex, but with Home being as ridiculously expensive as it is, I'm apprehensive about moving them forward, especially with this DLC crap looming over the series.

Unless Nintendo releases complete editions of Sword/Shield at retail at the end of the year with the DLC content on cartridge (like the old days), I will most likely quit the main series games after 20+ years, and stick to replaying my GBA/DS/3DS games, and leave my existing Pokémon where they are now, suspended in a time before the brand was consumed by corporate greed.

I may still give other games a look (Rescue Team's looking really good to me right now) but a DLC/subscription/in-app purchase ridden future for the series is not one that I want to be a part of.

@Silly_G Rescue Team will get DLC as well

Also there are no "in-app" purchases in ANY (full price) Nintendo game on the Switch. That won't change.

Also DLC / subscriptions are where 99% of gaming is heading right now. This happening to Pokémon was inevitable.

TBH. I'm still waiting to see them make a Pokémon "live service" game with all regions and free travel and such.

Explains the increased cost. I take it my old account is wiped then.

TPC try and impose these financial restrictions on everyone, with the implied threat that they will lose their Pokemon if they let their subscriptions lapse. What scummy money grabbing they have become! No wonder people “gen” and create duplicate Pokemon. You can’t have it both ways Nintendo! You are making Pokemon too cost prohibitive

That's fine with me

Alright, I'll move everything up during the freebie crossover month with Bank, but I'm not paying anything for the service unless they lower the price, add more value than simple storage and trades, or until I'm able to move all my 'mon into a game where they can be played. Premium's price is a joke for what it offers.

That's some good news. I don't have to pay indefinitely until some Pokémon become usable 5 years from now. I hope they'll be consistent this time and this is actually final. TBH I'm still a little paranoid.

@Silly_G I had not subscribed to or opened Pokémon Bank for probably five years, and all my Pokemon were still in there when I checked it out yesterday. It sounds like it's kind of YMMV.

I don't recall that being the experience with Bank. Granted, I've never actually kept Pokémon in their past a lapsed subscription. I usually just used it for transferring. And when my subscription did expire, I renewed it shortly after in preparation for a new game.

As for Bank, I subscribed for three months just to be able to transfer Sword exclusives I didn't have and those 35 extra Pokémon from Bank. I don't foresee myself leaving my Pokémon in there as I don't see the point when I can't use them and I'm at the mercy of Game Freak until they decide when they want to add them to Sword & Shield or when they announce a new game. I was hoping Home would have some extra functionality outside of storage. The GTS trading is nice. Just not enough to commit to it long term

@Silly_G I’m guessing it’s highly likely they’ll pull service from Bank soon, like within the year, given they expect most fans will transfer their Pokémon ASAP. Personally I think I may as well while it’s free.

And I’m sorry to hear you feel that way about the future of the series. Personally it’s had the opposite effect on me - buying the game again just to access the handful of new content in the “ultra” versions of the games, only a year or two after the original version released, was getting too much for me. Waste of my money. I’d rather pay half the price of a new game and just get the new content. Though maybe they’ll release a complete edition, like you said, for people who prefer that way? I don’t have the financial luxury to do that these days though, it’s just too expensive for me to buy the same game (with some new content) twice.

@ShadJV I completely agree with you. I don't understand the outrage on the DLC. I'd much rather have DLC that adds so much additional content instead of a full-priced game that adds practically the same amount of content.

@FiveDigitLP I suppose I understand it for people who want to own own physical copies of everything. At that point it’s not about the cost though, it’s about wanting physical options, and as I said I wouldn’t mind if they released a “definitive version” that included the DLC on the card just to cater to that demographic. Though I suspect there will still be people complaining that the physical option costs more. Still, having this content as DLC renews my interest in the series. It’s financially better for me.

That’s unusually user friendly of them. Now I wish I had just payed one month and stored them there for the future, but oh well.... better start trading those mons

@Silly_G I signed up for Pokemon Bank for a year when it launched in 2013. I didn't renew or use the service beyond that year. I then just went into it yesterday (with the one month free Pokemon Bank membership) to transfer all of my Pokemon to my paid Pokemon Home account and they were all still there in Pokemon Bank. So apparently we haven't reached the time frame where they are deleting from Bank.

@dux You still get a month of Pokemon Bank for free now with the release of Pokemon Home. So if you're looking to transfer from Pokemon Bank in hopes that more Pokemon will be supported from Home in the future, now is a good time.

@Nico07 I know, but I was saying about my Pokémon in Home. I could've just payed the month and waited for the new generation to use them. However, I have to say I've been enjoying using Wonder Trade and the GTS in my phone, since my Switch rarely leaves the house. Home is bare bones, but I'm kind of liking it. I just wish we had easier/faster tagging cataloguing and organizing functions

This has to be a joke. Years and Years of grinding down the drain because of this awful program. I had a near completed national dex, over a box of shinies, More than 3 boxes of legendaries including mystery gifts I’ll never get back, a glitched but legit transferable mew from Pokémon blue than I grinded so hard to get. All of my team members from all my Pokémon games I ever played. I’m just looking back on the hours upon hours of shiny hunting as a kid. And it’s all gone. All gone...