Late on Oct. 3, Nintendo announced it will be shutting down online services for the 3DS and Wii U entirely in April 2024—though a special exception is being made for Pokémon Bank. Unfortunately, Pokémon fans likely won’t have as much time as they would like to use the transporter service despite avoiding the initial shutdown.
In a new statement from TPC, via the Play Pokémon Twitter page, it has been reaffirmed that Pokémon Bank will not be discontinued alongside the 3DS servers in April 2024. But that is where the good news ends as the message also contains a light warning.
“While Pokémon Bank can be used beyond that date, we encourage players to transfer their Pokémon to Pokémon HOME at their earliest convenience,” TPC said.
This does not confirm a time frame for when Pokémon Bank is going to shut down after the 3DS servers go offline next year, but it is a heavy nudge from TPC to not wait on performing any transfers.
For players who have been playing Pokémon games since the Game Boy Advance era or earlier, once Pokémon Bank’s services are discontinued, there will be no legal way to transfer your Pokémon from as early as Ruby and Sapphire all the way to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon to HOME. This will be the first time since Gen II was cut off from Gen III that previous Pokémon games have had no connectivity to newer titles in the franchise.
It is likely TPC is holding off on shutting down Pokémon Bank until all over 1,000 current species are available in a game featured on the Nintendo Switch in some fashion. Currently, that means a few Unovan species like Patrat and the elemental monkeys, along with Furfrou are up in the air since Snivy and Tepig are confirmed to be coming alongside The Indigo Disk DLC later this year.
The writing was on the wall for Pokémon Bank as soon as the 3DS and Wii U eShops were shuttered back in March, making it impossible to legally download the app and the required Poké Transporter tool unless you previously had it on your console. Now, it is only a matter of time until the feature is gone for good and a more than 20-year span of connectivity between Pokémon generations ends on a sad note.
