PSA: Download Pokemon Bank on 3DS before the eShop shutdown

It’ll be free to use afterward

In case you missed it, the 3DS and Wii U eShops are shutting down on March 27, 2023, and that impacts a lot of moving parts: Pokemon Bank included. You know, Pokemon Bank! That precursor to Pokemon Home, where you can move your party members around to different games? Yeah that’s going away, but you can still download it and link it to your account.

As this wild ride Reddit thread reminds us, Pokemon Bank will indeed be dead if you haven’t picked it up already, which will severely impact your ability to get your Pokemon off of your 3DS entries and into the newest generation. Odds are if you’re a hardcore player you’ve probably already planned for this, but just in case, it was worth a reminder all the same. As the aforementioned Redditor found out, I’m sure there’s lots of lapsed players, and tons of folks who stopped paying for Pokemon Bank ages ago, but still might want to transfer everything off of the prior (soon-to-be-dead) generations.

Some fast-facts about the Pokemon Bank 3DS shutdown

• The confirmed shutdown date is March 27, 2023
• You’ll still be able to access Pokemon Bank if you own the app
• The Pokemon Bank app will be free after the shutdown (note that Pokemon Home will not be)
• No refunds will be given out by The Pokemon Company in light of the shutdown
• The Poke Transporter will also be shutdown on that same date

Chris Carter

EIC, Reviews Director – Chris has been enjoying Destructoid avidly since 2008. He finally decided to take the next step in January of 2009 blogging on the site. Now, he’s staff!