Those CROOKS At Nintendo Are Shutting Down Pokémon Bank
I wanted to use a different c-word here but I wasn’t really trying to tank this entire website’s SEO for the sake of one blog. Use your imagination.
Anyway.
What the FUCK Nintendo?
If you’ve been listening to the podcast for the last year, you know I’ve been on a CRUSADE to collect at least one Pokémon game from every generation, all the way back to the start. No reproductions, no emulators, just good ol’ fashioned physical game media preservation. Part of that reason, is that I always wanted to be able to play the original games, and later preserve those Pokémon forever in Pokémon HOME. Furthermore, I had hoped to pass those games down to my son once he’s old enough so, if he wants, he can start from the beginning and always keep the Pokémon from his childhood.
Now, that dream is dead.
As of right now (and until this coming February), you can still utilize the Nintendo DS to migrate Pokémon from as far back as the FireRed/LeafGreen/Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald generations all the way up to your Nintendo Switch 2. But in a matter of months, Nintendo will be killing physical retro Pokémon games as we know it.
You may cry out “leave the billion dollar company alone!” here, and you’d be an idiot for doing so. Yes, I understand that it costs money to leave online services running, but this is Pokémon. The biggest, most profitable media franchise on THE PLANET. THEY CAN AFFORD IT!
There’s probably tens of thousands (or more) trainers out there who still have Pokémon trapped on their old GBA or DS cartridges, and unless you act fast, they’ll stay there forever. Here’s hoping Nintendo wises up and either extends the life of Bank indefinitely, or provides us with some other physical method to transport our beloved, old school Pokémon to HOME.
