Following the revelation of new additional Pokémon for the "Pokémon Sun and Moon" installment, Nintendo dropped a new companion, tagged as "Pokémon Bank," for Pokémon trainers from all its previous and present game franchise, meticulously being the game's Ultimate Pokédex.
The Pokémon Bank is a cloud-based 3DS app that lets players deposit their monsters that can be "withdrawn" to another Pokemon game. According to GameNGuide, the national Pokédex give players the ability to view their whole Pokémon collection across all Nintendo 3DS titles.
Although Pokémon games generally have a Pokédex, it is suggested that the Pokédex in Pokémon Bank is expected to be the ultimate version that contains information on all creatures, regardless of the platform that players are using.
Aside from the functionality of Pokémon Bank, players can also be able to move their Pokemon from fifth-generation titles, together with the Virtual Console releases of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, to the Pokémon Bank through the tool called "Poke Transporter." More so, it is recommended that gamers install "Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow" on the same Nintendo 3DS device as Pokemon Bank.
CEO and president of The Pokémon Company Tsunekazu Ishihara announced its functionality in a Nintendo Direct presentation, during which "Pokémon Sun and Moon" were announced, Polygon learned.
"Beginning with the Game Boy Advance games, we made it possible for you to take the Pokémon you caught and bring them over to the next generation of games, even if they were on different hardware," Ishihara said.
He added, "however, we were never able to solve the communication issues with the Game Boy and it was not possible to bring Pokémon from the Game Boy games over to games on other hardware."
However, the app is only currently compatible to Pokémon X, Pokémon Y, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Now players will be able to use an in-app National Pokedex to keep track of the Pokemon they've caught on the mentioned game franchises.
The mentioned functionality of Pokémon Bank, along with the Pokémon Transporter service that will extend into the seventh generation of Pokémon games, could cost an annual usage fee of $5.83, while its activation comes in the form an annual pass.
As of press time, Nintendo confirmed that "Pokémon Sun and Moon" will receive Bank support in January 2017.