How Pokemon Home Is Different From Pokemon Bank

Game Rant

By Denny Connolly

Published Jun 11, 2019

During the Nintendo Treehouse event, Pokemon Sword and Shield's creators explain some limitations about which Pokemon can be transferred into the game.

Nintendo's E3 2019 Direct is over, but the Treehouse Live is just kicking off. That means fans are about to get a much closer look at a ton of gameplay for some of the game's coming to Nintendo Switch later this year. First off, the team jumped into Pokemon Sword and Shield and offered some very interesting details about the game and its related services.

During the recent Pokemon-themed Direct, fans got the first tease of a service called Pokemon Home, which seems like the new generation of Pokemon Bank. Because of the correlation between the two services, Nintendo wanted to make sure to clarify a key difference that Pokemon Sword and Shield players need to be aware of.

The main limitation is that players will only be able to transfer Pokemon from the Galar-region Pokedex into Pokemon Sword/Shield from Pokemon Home. This limitation was put in place to keep combat in the upcoming games balanced and make sure that the team didn't have to worry about balancing the new Pokemon against the 800+ full Pokedex entries.

This is likely going to make some longtime Pokemon fans pretty unhappy, but it's good that Nintendo got out in front of the news and offered this early disclaimer. Hopefully that gives the super fans enough time to process the news and adjust to this change before the service and the new games launch.

Be sure to check back throughout the week for more E3 2019 leaks, new, and updates. Until then, good luck out there, trainers!