What Happened to Poké Transporter?
As a lifelong Pokémon fan and avid gamer, I was somewhat concerned when The Pokémon Company announced that the Nintendo 3DS eShop, along with Pokémon Bank and its companion app Poké Transporter, will go offline permanently on March 27, 2023.
After all, the Transporter serves the incredibly vital purpose of letting players transfer Pokémon from older Generation 5 DS games like Black & White into the ecosystem‘s more modern titles exclusive to the 3DS and Switch. Having grinded for countless hours to catch ‘em all, I couldn‘t bear the thought of losing access to my decade-old collection!
Fortunately, The Pokémon Company delivered some reassuring news – while the apps will no longer be available for new downloads post-eShop closure, existing users who already downloaded Poké Transporter will enjoy uninterrupted access to this bridge between the franchise‘s generations moving forward. As an avid Pokémon archivist myself, this comes as a huge relief and should help long-time fans rest easier at night.
What Does Losing New Transporter Downloads Mean?
First released alongside Pokémon Bank in December 2013, the Poké Transporter enables the critical transfer of Pokémon from Generation 5 cartridges on the DS/DSi systems to Generation 6+ games exclusive to the 3DS and beyond.
Without it, there is essentially no easy way forward for legacy Pokémon into new titles like Sun/Moon or Scarlet/Violet. So while existing owners are in the clear, its absence from future digital storefronts is still a major loss for players lacking the app.
According to statistics gathered by Statista, over 240 million Pokémon video games have been sold worldwide as of 2020, while a dedicated playerbase of at least 10 million users actively play across console generations. For the subset of hardcore fans within that group who care deeply about maintaining their historical collections, I can‘t understate how essential the Transporter‘s role has been in that process.
| App | Use Case | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Pokémon Bank | Store up to 3,000 Pokémon online across generations | $4.99/year |
| Poké Transporter | Transfer Pokémon from Gen 5 games to Bank/HOME | Free for Bank subscribers |
| Pokémon HOME | New centralized storefront and transfer hub | Free or $15.99/year tiers |
As you can glean from the table above, the Transporter is a complementary app that forms a critical bridge between the cloud-hosted Bank repository and legacy DS cartridges.
While Pokémon HOME aims to be the ecosystem‘s new centralized nexus for transfers moving forward, it crucially lacks backward compatibility beyond the 3DS/Bank environment. So in the post-eShop era, new fans will have their work cut out for them.
The Solving HOME-Bank-Transporter Conundrum for New Players
According to Nintendo Life and other reputable gaming news sites, The Pokémon Company recommends that players unable to acquire Poké Transporter before March should use Pokémon HOME in conjunction with the now freely-accessible Pokémon Bank to facilitate cross-generational transfers after the eShop closure.
Following a few key steps can preserve connectivity:
Sign up for Pokémon HOME on Nintendo Switch for free (or pay for premium tiers to hold more Pokémon)
Download Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter from the 3DS eShop before March 27, 2023
Connect Bank account to HOME and transfer 3DS Pokémon into HOME storage
Move Pokémon from Generation 5 DS games using the Transporter app to migrate into Bank
Withdraw any legacy Pokémon collections from Bank directly into HOME across all connected games
Sure, having to essentially daisy-chain apps between devices is less seamless than a unified transfer hub. But for diehard completionists willing to put in the effort, this methodology ensures no Pokémon get left behind across hardware generations.
The key is downloading that Transporter while it‘s still around – after that, the compatibility chain gets far more complicated for newcomers!
Preserving Our Gaming Legacy Matters – Keep Poké Transporter Alive!
As gamers, the worlds, characters, and progress we‘ve built across decades of playtime are deeply meaningful; they shape rewarding journeys where collectibles like Pokémon feel intensely personal.
Losing seamless access hurts on an emotional level for longtime fans in particular – that‘s hundreds of hours, or even thousands in some cases, spent assembling teams that now risk being separated across disconnected consoles.
Frankly, the complications introduced post-eShop around getting previous-gen Pokémon into modern titles are unacceptable to me as a diehard player. But until console emulation matures further, these hacked-together app solutions do function enough to safeguard hardcore collections.
My dream is still an official Pokémon Legacy Collection someday; a mini console with built-in connectivity that respects aging fan dedication by preserving cross-play. Gamers like myself deserve to keep bonding with our beloved monsters regardless of whether their origin cartridges gather dust!
In the meantime, please – secure that Poké Transporter app before March 27 rolls around. And if you haven‘t already, take a moment to thank the passionate developers at Game Freak who‘ve found creative ways thus far to help players like me bring old friends along to new adventures. Because unlessHOME gets some major compatibility upgrades in the future, the upcoming eShop closure marks the end of an era for introducing new fans to once easily accessible legacy Pokémon.
