Pokémon Bank Will Be "Free To Use" When 3DS eShop Purchases End

Bank is free but Home is not.

actually kind of dope, although without home...a little useless

This news is seemingly good, but Pokémon Company's statement saying it will be supported for "a certain period of time" isn't reassuring at all.

It's a service on borrowed time.

@Zach777 just $3 for a month of Home not that much and a month is all you really need

Is the connection between older Pokémon games finally going to get cut?

You can still catch a Pokémon in a GBA game, and transfer all the way to the Switch, but I am starting to think this connection will finally die since back then, you could make the transfer without internet and a service.

@CodyMKW True, you could probably get done with all your needed transfers within a week. So, unless you were a streamer or a really hardcore collector, there isn't much point in buying more than a month.

Well i guess I better start beating my older Pokemon games.

Really surprised that took this long, they only had like 5 subscribers.

@victordamazio That stings for the people who have stuck since the first generations.

@Zach777 neither is free. Bank will be free after march next year

That's nice and all but weren't we supposed to get an update to Pokemon Home last month so that we could transfer Pokemon from BDSP and Arceus?

@Edwirichuu When they switched from Gen II to Gen III, the Game Boy/Game Boy Color games were incompatible with the Game Boy Advance games.

At first, this meant that you could not complete your Pokedex in the GBA games, only in later games that became possible.

Eventually, the original Gen I and Gen II games were released on 3DS, and allowed us to transfer Pokémon to the newer games, but the original cartridges still don't have that option to this day.

Honestly this should've happened when Home launched, and Home still sucks, but I guess I save $5 every year.

OMG, I will finally be able to transfer my shiny ditto over!

So when does home get support for bdsp/pla?

So why didn't they just make Pokemon Bank for the Switch/modern platforms? Introducing Home was the dumbest, most tone-deaf decision by the Pokemon Company and is going to have major backlash and repercussions in the future. The end of the 3DS eShop is just the tip of the iceberg that is already melting.

This is all so sudden...

@Axecon There not the same thing?

@CharlieGirl Realistically, they could just make it work locally, to move things in between the VC, DS, and 3DS games. Store them in your console without connecting to a server.

The problem will be how long will they allow us to move the Pokemon to Home.

That’s very generous of them, we should be seeing home updates this month so we’ll be able to go from gen 4 to BDSP

As long as it stays online, I’m fine with that. I’m just worried about its inevitable closure. It officially locks all the games prior to Sword and Shield from being transferred up when it does.

This is good news for me. I have a living pokedex that's still in Gen VII.

As others have rightfully worried, this is a dangerous precedent we're about to experience in the coming years - once Pokemon Bank shuts down for good, you'll no longer be able to transfer Pokemon up from the GBA to the most recent system with the long, convoluted, weirdly brilliant chain of complicated systems used to transfer Pokemon from gen to gen.

Which really sucks. Hopefully they figure something out (I doubt it though)

Well, we got something good out of this otherwise tragic announcement at least. Glad I've held off on doing any Transferring for awhile! ^^

@victordamazio

Actually, you can transfare your Save Data with a Retrode2 to a PC, put it on the SD-Card of your 3DS and transfare the Pokemon to a newer Gen.

I didn't make it myself, but it works, also with other Devices that help to extract the Save Game from the original Modules (Action Replays and a like).

I'm pleased to hear this but this is still something that has limited time. I bought some games on Wiiware but because the Wii and SD Card was already full up I was unable to download them so when the Wii Shop closed I lost them. I'm not making the same mistake here when 3DS and Wii U eshop close down.

@Shepdawg1 If you have more than one 3DS you can transfer Pokèmon from one 3DS game to another 3DS game by trading with yourself once Bank is gone but that's it. That said if I recall I don't think the Gen VI games communicate with the Gen VII games so yeah we'll be pretty screwed 😦

I love how this conversation shifted from "Hey, Bank is free" to "Pokemon are going extinct!"

For me, through that Pokemon Back will be free in 2023 is a great news, the real news is the end of 3DS and Wii U eShops!
Just as I said in other moment, online/digital games are bad for this: preservation and play them anytime...

I better download Pokemon Bank (and a few of the gameboy pokemon games) before the eShop closes.

@Snatcher Same concept but two different platforms, two different accounts/subscriptions

@CharlieGirl I remember when it was first shown off and they were talking how Bank could be used for generations to come (as in human ones), yet when the Switch came out they already had a "new" service to replace it, making me think Bank wouldn't be around for too much longer.

I was on here commenting a few hours ago about the Wii U eshop closing to talk about lack of choice and then it gets announced and 3DS too... for **** sake.

I already know what the comment section here will be like without even looking at it.

It should have been free anyway, but it's good they're keeping it up a while longer yet. I've been dreading the day they close it down, as it then cuts off any pre-switch Pokemon game forever.

Well now is my last chance to transfer a gen 3 pokemon to every generation and onto the switch. Who should I bring?

The problem will be how long will they allow us to move the Pokemon to Home.
@Eel i'm half expecting them to release another pokeball plus type thing but made to be a seg-way between gen 6-7 and gen 8 &/or 9. i mean, a 2gb micro sd card could fit a ton of pokemon as each one takes up less than a mb of space leaving them plenty of room to add in their bank & home filters to it.
they could also make bank have an offline mode and have a wireless link cable that connects to a switch dock's usb port that would send pokemon from bank into home or some type of transporter box.

@Jokerwolf ahem 6 subscribers, I still use Bank from time to time lol!

I subscribe to Bank but not to Home due to the insane price hike. Is there a chart somewhere of which Pokemon can be transferred into which Switch games? I don't want to move all my Pokemon from Bank to Home, if I have nowhere to put them and be stuck paying the Home subscription.

@GerBearNy The problem with that is they would need to develop and release it within the next year. That way, they could push out an update for all Pokemon games on the eShop before it's closure so they can communicate with the device.

Should've been free from the beginning, and Pokemon Home should be free now. Paying for the ability to (maybe but not always guaranteed) transfer Pokemon to the next gen is a complete scam.

@PJ301178 My wife and I stopped using it once they added a price to it. I have pokemon in there that are like almost 20 years old.

That's very good and all but my biggest concern is still how they'll delete your Pokemon if you don't pay for Home. They should change that.

So we have to wait till next year? I misread it and thought it was next month

It probably cost them pennies to keep this service running anyways.

Exported Pokemon files used for save editors are measured in the bytes. 3,000 Pokemon couldn't possibly be more than 3mb at the absolute most.

I'm really confused why this was a cloud service to begin with, considering Bank itself is about 30 MB.

@Zach777 trchnicslly home is fremium can be used for free with limited acessability... Might drop the $15 to finally update my nat dex though.

@Jokerwolf I thought that Bank was a paid subscription from the start when it launched in 2014? (except for the free month when Home launched)

@PJ301178 I remember it being free for a bit and then they added a fee. It was supe cheap until the Switch version.

What about Badge Arcade? I know, we now get 2 free plays automatically, but will it just become free-to-play like this?

@Zach777
Just like the real world

@octokid That's a really good question

My paid subscription ends before March. I guess I better temporarily move all my Pokemon out of the PokeBank till March.

Having something like the PokeBank has been really nice. It marked the beginning of me being able to actually keep my Pokemon when I restart a game. I've never been able to before because I've never had friends, let alone friends that played Pokemon and had the equipment necessary to trade.

Since then I have acquired 1 New 2DS XL and 1 2DS so I'll still be able to trade between the 3DS games but still.

That´s good. I was worried to transfer all my generations and keep my save data empty. I won´t be worried to keep pokemon to make eggs and have a lot of generations in home.