Pokemon Home, the somewhat unwieldy cloud service Nintendo is introducing to allow players to move Pokemon between recent games, will launch in February 2020.
The service, which quite literally needs a Venn diagram to explain, will connect together the Pokemon Let's Go and Sword/Shield games on Switch, Pokemon games on 3DS and the Pokemon Go smartphone game.
However it's not quite as simple as letting you throw Pokemon back and forth between the games. If you move a Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu Pokemon to the Home app on Nintendo Switch or Mobile, you can trade it with other players or move it back to Let's Go. However if you moved that Pokemon to Sword/Shield it can no longer be moved back.
Also you need to be subscribed to the Pokemon Home Premium plan ($2.99/month or $15.99/year) in order to use the Poke Transporter to move Pokemon from the Pokemon Bank used by Nintendo 3DS to the Pokemon Home app. And then, once you've done that you can't move them back to Pokemon Bank and play with them on 3DS again.
As an introductory offer, when the Pokemon Home service launches in February, all players will have access to the Pokemon Bank and Poke Transporter for a month without charge.
This is a good way for players who have moved Pokemon with them through every game since the early titles to get them into Sword and Shield, but it's still got a lot of that classic Nintendo Online jankiness we know and love.
If you're not moving Pokemon between games, the Pokemon Home app will allow you to trade them to other players around the world in a few different ways. There's Wonder Box and the Global Trade System, which allow you to trade with anyone based on set criteria. Room Trade lets you create a room and tell others how to join it, if you have acquaintances or meet someone at an event and want to trade. Then there's Friend Trade which lets nearby users who have become friends through Pokemon Home trade their 'mons.
There are other benefits to Premium plans over the Basic Pokemon Home subscription. Basic users can only deposit 30 Pokemon while Premium can deposit 6000. You can only place 3 Pokemon in the Wonder Box instead of 10, and only 1 Global Trade System Pokemon at a time instead of 3. Only Premium users will be able to host Room Trades, though Basic users can still participate in them, and you also only get access to the Judge function (finding out how good Pokemon natural stat gain is) if you pay.
Will you be getting Pokemon Home when it comes out in February to transfer your favorite Pokemon?
