Image credit: Eurogamer

Today, The Pokémon Company announced that it's shutting down Pokémon Bank, the Pokémon storage app was that was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS back in 2013. The service goes offline on 26th February, 2027, so you've still got plenty of time to access your old pals and begin migrating them into your new games, if you've got the time and energy.

Pokémon Bank was originally designed for trainers to import their Pokémon from Black & White, Black & White 2, X & Y, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and Sun & Moon into one collective location, making a sort-of hub that allowed you to move creatures into various games. Handy for competitive players and those diligent shiny hunters that make up a large portion of the community, the software was celebrated as a handy method of moving 'mon between generations.

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Even though Nintendo has announced the service will close early next year, it's been inaccessible to many players for a while now: Nintendo shut down the 3DS' online store back in 2023, delisting Pokémon Bank along with it. But Nintendo and The Pokémon Company kept support alive for Pokémon Bank ever since (staying online even when online play ceased on the 3DS a year later).

Fear not, however: if you want a central nexus for all your Pokémon that is also compatible with Switch games (and Switch ports, like FireRed and LeafGreen), you can use 2020's Pokémon Home. We have a complete guide on how to migrate Pokémon from Bank to Home, if you need it.

The Pokémon Company has recommended we transfer any Pokémon left in our Pokémon Bank account over to Pokémon Home, otherwise they'll disappear forever as of February 2027. Hold on whilst I go in and rescue my competition-winning shiny Tyranitar, then.

How to transfer from Pokémon Bank to Pokémon Home. | Image credit: The Pokémon Company

"Pokémon Bank, a Nintendo 3DS application that lets players deposit or withdraw Pokémon they have befriended in Pokémon titles on that system from online Boxes, will be ending service on Thursday, 25th February, 2027, at 7pm PST," an official statement from The Pokémon Company reads. "As a result, transferring Pokémon from Pokémon Bank to Pokémon Home will also no longer be possible. If you have Pokémon stored in Pokémon Bank that you wish to carry over, please move them to Pokémon HOME prior to Pokémon Bank's end of service."

It's not all doom and gloom, though: part of today's announcement was that we will finally be able to link up FireRed and LeafGreen to Home as of October 2026. we knew that Home compatibility would be added to the 2026 ports at some point, we just didn't know when. This has sparked a wave of speculation about Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald ports being launched around the same time, though nothing official has been announced at the time of writing.

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