Pokémon Bank still keeps your Pokémon even if your pass expired

The Pokémon Company has released a notice concerning Pokémon Bank. It clarifies that all Pokémon have been kept in the bank regardless of how long they have been there or the status of any paid passes.

Pokémon Bank is an application and service for the Nintendo 3DS that allows you to deposit, store, and manage Pokémon that you have caught across a number of games in the series. The application also includes additional features, such as the ability to view the National Pokédex and the Adventure Records, which let you look at your stats from the games.

When the service first launched in 2013, it was compatible with Pokémon X and Y, the latest games in the series at that time, and support was added for the other core series 3DS titles as they were released. Furthermore, by using the Poké Transporter, you could also transfer Pokémon from the Virtual Console or Nintendo DS core series games to Pokémon Bank. Pokémon HOME serves as the successor to Pokémon Bank and performs the same functions for the titles available on the Nintendo Switch.

In July 2022, The Pokémon Company announced that with the discontinuation of the Nintendo eShop service for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, the Pokémon Bank service would become available at no cost to users. In line with the initial announcement, Pokémon Bank became free to use as of March 27 (PDT).

However, as the Nintendo eShop service has shut down, it is no longer possible to download Pokémon Bank, so only those who had previously downloaded the application to their 3DS will be able to continue using it.

When Pokémon Bank was previously a paid service, it was explained that if a player’s paid pass had expired, then after a period of time, any Pokémon they had stored in the bank would be deleted. Perhaps concerned by that previous explanation, some took this opportunity to ask about what happened to any Pokémon that they had stored in the bank once any paid passes that they purchased had expired and they had not used the service for an extended period of time. In response to this query, The Pokémon Company stated that all Pokémon have been kept in the bank regardless of how long they have been there or the status of any paid passes.

At the time that Pokémon X and Y were released, the president and CEO of The Pokémon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara, said, “We have created Pokémon Bank so that from now on, all players will be able to stay together with their precious Pokémon, no matter if the hardware and software they use to play changes.” (Pokémon X and Y official site). That ideal seems to have remained the same to this day.

The official Japanese Pokémon Twitter account posted a message stating, “All Pokémon that have been deposited into the bank have been looked after with great care.” Many users have replied to the tweet, expressing their gratitude for the way their Pokémon have been handled.