Pokemon Home Release Date Window Confirmed

Pokémon Home now has a release date window, with Nintendo confirming that the service is planned to launch in February. The service is a cloud-based storage system to house your cute critters, and you’ll be able to access it on Nintendo Switch, Android devices, and iOS devices.

As far as we know, Pokémon Home will allow players to bring together the creatures they’ve caught on Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, Pokémon Sword and Shield, and Pokémon Go. It will also connect up with Pokémon Bank, a similar service that previously enabled connections between the 3DS games of the franchise.

As well as transferring creatures into Pokémon Home from all of those sources, you’ll also be able to move your pocket monsters out of Pokémon Home and into Pokémon Sword and Shield, as long as the critter in question is actually supported by Pokémon Sword and Shield. (Lest we forget that Pokémon Sword and Shield received some flack from certain segments of the fanbase because it did not feature a full “National Dex” that allowed you to bring every Pokémon ever created into the game.)

Although some fans been motivated by Sword and Shield‘s shortcomings to mod in their favorite missing Pokémon to the current generation of games, others will surely be satisfied by the option to collect a larger stable of critters on Pokémon Home. And there will continue to be players that can’t be bothered to expand their collection with fan mods or cloud solutions – those sorts of fans will probably just keep playing Pokémon games as they come out, without getting bogged down by the collect-a-thon side of the franchise.

After Pokémon Home launches in February, Nintendo and Game Freak will launch the Pokémon Sword and Shield expansion pass in June 2020, adding more creatures and locations to the Sword and Shield games. Although there still won’t be a National Dex in Sword and Shield, there will be more critters in the DLC, and you’ll be able to transfer them all in and out of Pokémon Home. We’ll let you know when the exact launch date for the service is confirmed.