Yesterday, The Pokémon Company announced that it’s officially ending support for Pokémon Bank, the cross-generation storage system that connected games as far back as the GBA entries to modern ones on the Switch 2. Though trading Pokémon between pre-Switch games is definitely a niche activity at this point in the series’ life, it was, for many fans over the past 30 years, a key memory of their experiences with the franchise. However, fans aren’t just mourning the past, as this move will also effectively switch off some features and completionist elements in the old games for anyone who plays them now or in the future.
While cross-generation trading may sound like a cool luxury today, once upon a time the examples of connectivity across generations helped players feel like their Pokémon journeys had taken them across multiple different regions. Some fans have pointed out that features like Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon’s Alola Photo Club actively incentivized you to trade Pokémon from old games in order to collect backgrounds for photoshoots. These included environments based on previous games, and required you to use a ‘mon who originated from those games in order to access them.
oh my god https://t.co/PmwBrkc5tu pic.twitter.com/7xZHD5JXv0
— ✨mike✨ (@MikeCatSU) August 13, 2026
Another feature that will be affected is the Ribbon system. These items are given to Pokémon for certain achievements, such as beating the Elite Four in a given region, and they stick with a Pokémon no matter what game they’re in, so Pokémon who have been transferred across multiple games have records of their cross-generation adventures. Without Bank, several of those Ribbons will only be transferable within a much more limited number of games. Titles, which are also acquired through various in-game achievements, will also become locked away in old games.
Pokemon Bank shutting down is a massive blow to the ribbon collecting community. People build up “ribbon masters” where they choose a pokemon and collect every possible ribbon throughout the games. A lot of ribbons will be locked out now. pic.twitter.com/POHX7antSI
— NintenCisco (@NintenCisco) August 13, 2026
Friendly Reminder: If you want a Pokémon with the title “The Living Legend” it will be unavailable once Pokémon Bank goes down. So get it while you still can. https://t.co/vfjTsQzbw6
— Gio™ (@the_one_gio) August 13, 2026
Fans have been compiling lists of Pokémon and other distinguishing traits, attacks, and abilities that will become unavailable in modern Pokémon games once Bank shuts down. To a more casual player, some of these losses will likely be no big deal, but for a series that has had decades of cross-generation connectivity, these little things add up to what is ultimately a really sad loss for the series. Bank is shutting down on February 25, so if you have Pokémon you want to transfer to modern games, we have a (very long, complicated) walkthrough on how to do that here.
