Late on Oct. 3, Nintendo announced that it will be discontinuing online services for the 3DS and Wii U in April 2024. However, Pokémon Bank will receive a special exception and will not be shut down alongside the 3DS servers. Despite this, Pokémon fans are urged to transfer their Pokémon to Pokémon HOME as soon as possible.
In a statement from TPC, it has been confirmed that Pokémon Bank will continue to operate beyond April 2024. Nevertheless, players are strongly advised to transfer their Pokémon to Pokémon HOME at their earliest convenience.
While no specific timeframe has been given for the shutdown of Pokémon Bank after the 3DS servers go offline, TPC is urging players not to delay the transfer process.
For long-time Pokémon players who have been with the franchise since the Game Boy Advance era or earlier, the discontinuation of Pokémon Bank means there will be no legal way to transfer Pokémon from older games, such as Ruby and Sapphire, to newer titles like Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. This marks the first time since the disconnection between Generation II and Generation III that previous Pokémon games will have no connectivity to the latest games in the series.
It is likely that TPC is waiting until all current species, totaling over 1,000, are available in a Nintendo Switch game before shutting down Pokémon Bank. Currently, a few Unovan species, including Patrat, the elemental monkeys, and Furfrou, are uncertain since only Snivy and Tepig have been confirmed to be coming in The Indigo Disk DLC later this year.
The fate of Pokémon Bank was sealed when the 3DS and Wii U eShops were closed in March, making it impossible to legally download the app and the required Poké Transporter tool unless it was already on the console. Now, it is only a matter of time until the feature is permanently gone, marking the end of over 20 years of connectivity between Pokémon generations on a somber note.
Source: DOTESPORTS
