If you’re a hardcore fan of Pokemon, you probably wouldn’t have to worry about this, as you’d have already migrated all the monsters you’ve collected over the generations to the Pokemon Home service. If you’re one of the remaining Pokemon Bank holdouts, there’s bad news on that front – the service is being shut down early next year. The Pokemon Company made the announcement via its official website, but it’s buried beneath a separate announcement informing players that the Nintendo Switch version of FireRed and LeafGreen can connect to Pokemon Home from October onwards.
Per the announcement, Pokemon Bank will be shuttered on 25 February 2027. The exact time is 7PM PST, which translates to 10AM the next day for us here in Malaysia. Any of your pocket monsters that are still there by then and not transferred to the successor Home service will be gone forever. But then again, if you don’t have a working 3DS with Bank installed, then it’s already too late. After all, Nintendo ended support for the 3DS eShop back in 2023.
This makes monetary sense, since systems that rely on Bank instead of Home are old, and if we’re being less charitable, outdated. This would also save TPC money trying to keep what are essentially two of the same services alive, and since it charges a subscription fee for Home, it’s all the more reason to stop trickling resources into the other one. But on the flip side, for players who want to keep mementos from every step of their journey, the only option is to pay up.
Also, it’s worth remembering that TPC killed the National Dex with Sword and Shield, the eighth generation of games. Immediately proving why this is a problem is the Pokedex in Scarlet and Violet not having Pokemon from the generation immediately before, nevermind earlier ones, so you can’t even move your entire collection from generation to generation anymore. Either way, Pokemon Home is the only way to keep this kind of record of your journey as a trainer.
(Source: TPC)
