Pokémon Bank is shutting down: Fans need to save their Pokémon now

Pokémon Bank is an older cloud service for the Nintendo 3DS that essentially served a similar purpose to Pokémon HOME today: Players could store their Pokémon from compatible games in online boxes and transfer them between different games. Since the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS closed, the application can no longer be downloaded. However, anyone who still has Pokémon Bank installed on their console can continue using it to this day. That will officially come to an end on February 27, 2027. As Nintendo has announced, the service will be permanently discontinued on that date. The Pokémon Company recommends that players transfer any Pokémon they want to keep to HOME beforehand.

Community disappointed, but also sees an opportunity

For longtime fans, the shutdown marks a major turning point: Pokémon Bank serves as an important bridge between older and current generations. Once the service is gone, Pokémon from numerous older games will no longer be transferable to Pokémon HOME through the existing official method. The decision is therefore drawing plenty of criticism on Reddit. Collectors and Shiny hunters in particular are disappointed that a transfer chain spanning more than two decades will be broken. Some fans now feel under pressure to go through their old save files and rescue important Pokémon before time runs out.

However, fans also see a certain opportunity in this almost tragic situation. Some suspect that the shutdown could be related to further re-releases of older Pokémon games. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen have already been re-released for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 and are set to receive Pokémon HOME support starting in October 2026. This will provide a new path to HOME for these games that does not rely on Pokémon Bank. As a result, some fans suspect that other classics could receive similar treatment.