Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen Change Has Fans Worried

The Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen eShop pages no longer include the promise of Pokemon Home support. Its removal raised compatibility concerns among fans, though there is precedent to suggest the upcoming Pokemon titles will receive the key feature eventually.

The Game Boy Advance-era remakes of the first-generation Pokemon games were announced on February 20. Both will be released via the Switch eShop on February 27, priced at $19.99 each. Nintendo is framing the launch as part of the celebrations dedicated to the series’ 30th anniversary, which falls on the same day. The company confirmed there are no plans to bring either game to the Nintendo Switch Online catalog. Separately, their eShop listings stated Pokemon Home support was “coming soon,” thus indirectly promising to resolve a longtime compatibility pain point with the series: getting Gen 1 mons to modern devices.

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen Are Getting an Incredible Special Edition, But With an Asterisk Attached

Nintendo reveals special editions of Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen Versions for the Switch, which pack some stellar goodies but come with a big catch.

Nintendo Pulls Pokemon Home Mentions from FireRed and LeafGreen eShop Pages

The pledge was pulled within hours of Nintendo announcing Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen. The development sparked concerns among fans, some of whom are publicly wondering whether this means the feature won’t be making its way to the re-releases after all. Taking recent history into account, an equally plausible explanation is that Pokemon Home compatibility is still on the way, but Nintendo is currently focusing its marketing efforts on features that will actually be available at launch. The company originally described its support as “coming soon” before removing the line altogether.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

The official confirmation of what the omission means in practice may arrive on February 27, when the 30th anniversary Pokemon Presents is scheduled to take place, beginning at 6 a.m. PT. Though Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen may not be the focus of the 25-minute show, the event will be an ample opportunity for The Pokemon Company to clarify the status of Pokemon Home support in the upcoming titles.

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen May Not Be Fully Beatable Without Pokemon Home

Creature transfers have been a series staple since its inception, and Pokemon games have historically focused on forward-facing compatibility. The GBA remakes of the Gen 1 titles defy this trend, as they are technically Generation 3 games that thus support a much larger pool of creatures. However, completing the National Pokedex in the original Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen requires trading from other third-generation releases. With no announced Switch availability for Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald, Pokemon Home currently seems like the easiest way to complete the National Pokedex in the upcoming Switch re-releases of FireRed and LeafGreen, assuming that the feature launches eventually. Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness also supported exchanging mons with the GBA-era games and are en route to the Switch, but only via the NSO subscription service and with no confirmed Pokemon Home support yet.

The franchise’s transfer services have historically operated on their own update cadence, with Pokemon Bank and Home support thus often being included post-launch rather than offered from day one. On Switch, the cleanest illustration are the Sword and Shield games, which launched November 15, 2019. However, they didn’t get Pokemon Home until mid-February 2020. The 2022 version 2.0 rollout of the transfer app repeated the pattern, resulting in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, and Legends: Arceus all receiving Home support around the same time

The original FireRed and LeafGreen from 2004 are technically already compatible with Pokemon Home, but not directly, not even close. The current process of getting a creature from one of the two GBA titles to the Switch-compatible transfer app requires sending it to Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum on the NDS, then to Pokemon Black, White, Black 2, or White 2, then to the Pokemon Bank on the 3DS, and only then to Home.