Pokemon Home brings together Pokemon Bank, Go, Sword, and Shield

Cloud service coming in ‘early 2020’

What if there was one cloud-based service to bridge all of your Pokémon games together? There is – well, there’s going to be! – and it’s called Pokémon Home. It’s planned for iOS, Android, and Switch in 2020 with support for not only the existing Pokémon Bank on 3DS but also Pokmon Go, Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee and Pikachu, and this year’s upcoming Nintendo Switch titles Pokémon Sword and Shield.

Welcome home, Trainers.

Introducing Pokémon HOME, a cloud service that will work with Nintendo Switch and iOS and Android devices, allowing you to bring over the Pokémon that you’ve shared adventures with throughout your journey. #PokemonHOME pic.twitter.com/fAlodMrRzh

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 29, 2019

The Pokémon Company announced the Pokémon Home service at an E3 2004-as-hell press conference streamed out of Tokyo. I can’t lie: I kept imagining people popping out of the on-stage Poké Ball.

Pokémon Home aims to connect fans whether they’re across the street or around the globe, and graciously, it will support online trading. In the company’s own words, “smartphone users can also trade with friends or others around the world directly from Pokémon Home.” It’s basically Pokémon Bank for Switch, so your old handheld-bound collection won’t have to rot. No word on pricing yet.

If this new service costs five bucks a year, I’d pay that fee without hesitation.