3DS/Wii U eShop Shutdown March 27 2023 - Online Services to go offline April 2024 (Bank Excluded)

[QuentinQuonce]

Bro this was literally bound to happen eventually

Doesn't make it any easier if you're invested though.

I've heard there's often a cycle to more complex games. They build up, are considered bloated, are cut down, are built up again. Granted, I hear that most often from those who deride the 'bloat' and want a steady state of the simpler versions. But I enjoy the climb and dread the cuts. The aftermath always seems to pale in comparison to its own past version. I haven't yet seen one of my favourites recover fully. But maybe, if this cycle exists, a game will come around to its former glory again. Maybe, with enough games, I could ride from peak to peak. I would just be waiting for when a game rises again. Hard part seems to be when multiple games collapse at the same time.

I don't know if and when pokemon is going to be good for me again. But I intend to be aware of it if and when it does.

This summed it up better than I could, I think.

I never got SwSh. Too much I disliked about them held me off ever going in. And so Pokemon sort of stopped for me after Gen VII. I still play all the older games faithfully, but anyone familiar with the topics I post about on here will know that the modern titles are... mostly theoretical for me. I still haven't even watched a playthrough of ScVi online. I still play Pokemon Go, though even that has been rapidly losing its appeal of late. It's more a social thing; I've made a few good friends through it. It's the older games I'm into, still, because they have so much replay value.

And I'm actually really tempted to get ScVi (Scarlet, definitely - atypical for me), especially once the DLC drops. Just to try and recapture some of that feeling of these games I love. But so much about those games still leaves me cold. Legends: Arceus... eh. I just don't feel the pull, as interesting as it looks. If they made a Johto Let's Go, I'd almost certainly be on it. But in terms of games that appeal in terms of complexity, and challenge? That's the older ones. As far as I'm concerned they leave the modern ones in the dust. So that's where my interest lies.

I have a Pokemon Home account, but it's basically just a contingency. Just so that if Pokemon ever does get good again, I'll be able to bring some of my old favourites over. As it is now I mainly just use it as a glorified model viewer and somewhere to dump excess shinies from Go so that when they make it ScVi-compatible I can complete the Pokedex quickly.

 

[R_N]

I think the primary lesson to learn is it's okay to walk away from a series (either in full or just the games that lost you) you don't especially care for anymore, even if it feels sad or bad in the moment, because lingering on games not capturing the magic you'll probably never feel again is going to feel worse.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I think the primary lesson to learn is it's okay to walk away from a series (either in full or just the games that lost you) you don't especially care for anymore, even if it feels sad or bad in the moment, because lingering on games not capturing the magic you'll probably never feel again is going to feel worse.

Well, I did more or less do that - walked away from SwSh, LGPE, and BDSP, the games that lost me for one reason or another. I truly don't spare a lot of thought on the games I don't care for. AFAIC the jury's still out on ScVi but I don't spare a lot of thought for them either.

What brings me joy is the older games, and the lore and replayability that comes with them.

 

[SadisticMystic]

If you open up Bank now, it'll say you have a free trial lasting "?40 days", i.e. 100n + 40 for some integer n that's at least 10. Plotting out all the possible values, I suspect they chose n=17, in which case they plan on maintaining the Bank servers in free mode up through December 31, 2027 but then can sunset the legacy service, providing the true cutoff day for all Pokemon to flee across the 7/8 divide or forever hold their peace in the games they're now stuck in.

(In the immediate aftermath, there are also reports that Poke Transporter doesn't recognize the free trial and therefore can only be used if you had an active, paid subscription as of the deadline, but this is something that could be fixed server-side within the next couple days.)

 

[R_N]

If you open up Bank now, it'll say you have a free trial lasting "?40 days", i.e. 100n + 40 for some integer n that's at least 10. Plotting out all the possible values, I suspect they chose n=17, in which case they plan on maintaining the Bank servers in free mode up through December 31, 2027 but then can sunset the legacy service, providing the true cutoff day for all Pokemon to flee across the 7/8 divide or forever hold their peace in the games they're now stuck in.

(In the immediate aftermath, there are also reports that Poke Transporter doesn't recognize the free trial and therefore can only be used if you had an active, paid subscription as of the deadline, but this is something that could be fixed server-side within the next couple days.)

God how funny would it be if they never fixed Transporter, though, and it did just die forever once your paid sub ran out tho.

end of 2027 feels like them playing it safe or, in the most literal extreme, might be the last day they could currently set it up with the system they had in place; personally I think there's a bigger risk of the 3DS online servers just being taken out entirely before they actively stop support of Bank.
Honestly it'd be nice if when that day did come they turned Bank into an "offline storage" deal so that any one playing the 3DS games could still store their 3DS-era Pokemon even if it can no longer move forward, but I suspect that's significantly more than can either be shoved into an update or what they would be willing to dedicated staff resources to doing for a console no longer produced to support games you can no longer buy that would be upwards of 15 years old depending on the game.

 

[bdt2002]

God how funny would it be if they never fixed Transporter, though, and it did just die forever once your paid sub ran out tho.

end of 2027 feels like them playing it safe or, in the most literal extreme, might be the last day they could currently set it up with the system they had in place; personally I think there's a bigger risk of the 3DS online servers just being taken out entirely before they actively stop support of Bank.
Honestly it'd be nice if when that day did come they turned Bank into an "offline storage" deal so that any one playing the 3DS games could still store their 3DS-era Pokemon even if it can no longer move forward, but I suspect that's significantly more than can either be shoved into an update or what they would be willing to dedicated staff resources to doing for a console no longer produced to support games you can no longer buy that would be upwards of 15 years old depending on the game.

The year 2027 does actually have some significance here. That's when the Nintendo Switch turns 10 years old (feel old yet?), and game console manufacturers are required by law to keep their online stores up for at least 10 years minimum. Why the reason for that law is, I don't know, but it's also why the Wii U eShop didn't close sooner. It just so happens that since the 3DS and Wii U eShops were linked together via Nintendo Network IDs and all that, it got caught in the crossfire when Nintendo wanted to take down the Wii U's eShop specifically.

My point is, Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter staying up until 2027 at the least would be a legal requirement for Nintendo and The Pokémon Company to maintain stable connection between these applications and Pokémon HOME.

A few other things we can take away from this:

1. At the absolute earliest, the Nintendo Switch eShop will not be discontinued until March of 2027 at the absolute earliest
2. By extension, the same also applies to the current iterations of the Nintendo Switch Online service since that's how you pay for it

In the case that the Nintendo Switch's successor also uses Nintendo Switch Online or a further-upgtraded version of the service, the 10-year requirement would extend the service's lifespan even further to at least 10 years after that system's release. This is important because every time a Nintendo console has outsold the previous one, the following system has been a continuation of the first system. This has been previously observed with the SNES, GBA, 3DS, and Wii U, as the NES, GB/GBC, DS, and Wii all out-sold their own predecessors, and the Switch (whose sales count the Switch Lite) notably outsold both the 3DS and the Wii U combined in both retail numbers and revenue count.

 

[R_N]

The year 2027 does actually have some significance here. That's when the Nintendo Switch turns 10 years old (feel old yet?), and game console manufacturers are required by law to keep their online stores up for at least 10 years minimum. Why the reason for that law is, I don't know, but it's also why the Wii U eShop didn't close sooner. It just so happens that since the 3DS and Wii U eShops were linked together via Nintendo Network IDs and all that, it got caught in the crossfire when Nintendo wanted to take down the Wii U's eShop specifically.

My point is, Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter staying up until 2027 at the least would be a legal requirement for Nintendo and The Pokémon Company to maintain stable connection between these applications and Pokémon HOME.

A few other things we can take away from this:

1. At the absolute earliest, the Nintendo Switch eShop will not be discontinued until March of 2027 at the absolute earliest
2. By extension, the same also applies to the current iterations of the Nintendo Switch Online service since that's how you pay for it

In the case that the Nintendo Switch's successor also uses Nintendo Switch Online or a further-upgtraded version of the service, the 10-year requirement would extend the service's lifespan even further to at least 10 years after that system's release. This is important because every time a Nintendo console has outsold the previous one, the following system has been a continuation of the first system. This has been previously observed with the SNES, GBA, 3DS, and Wii U, as the NES, GB/GBC, DS, and Wii all out-sold their own predecessors, and the Switch (whose sales count the Switch Lite) notably outsold both the 3DS and the Wii U combined in both retail numbers and revenue count.

I think this is the first time I've heard of the 10 year thing, but it's also kind of irrelevant for this very specific thing. It kind of seems like you're conflating what happened (the shops closure) with the entire online service.
There is no legal requirement (outside of needing to at least have the paid subs run their course, i suppose?) that they keep the Bank-Home connection at all, it is purely a gesture of good faith because they want that connection for marketing reasons since the actual online servers are still up and running for all 3DS/Wii U games for the time being. And a cynical gesture considering half the appeal of Home's yearly subs is the ability to import from Bank. But gestures nontheless.

Switch 2 now with Pokemon Mansion will not be the legal albatross that keeps the door open longer, is what I'm saying.

 

[Altissimo]

There is going to come a time at which the existence of all these services is going to be effectively useless due to hardware degradation anyway. Gen 3 cartridges are 20 years old. There's going to come a point at which those that remain in existence are collectors' items instead of ever actively being used, and those that are actively used are probably owned or sold by dedicated hardware specialists who repair them. One day Pal Park is going to become obsolete, and it's going to happen to Poke Transfer, Transporter etc in time as well. Caring excessively about maintaining connectivity - whether on the fans' part or Game Freak's - will inevitably have diminishing returns one day.

 

[bdt2002]

I think this is the first time I've heard of the 10 year thing, but it's also kind of irrelevant for this very specific thing. It kind of seems like you're conflating what happened (the shops closure) with the entire online service.
There is no legal requirement (outside of needing to at least have the paid subs run their course, i suppose?) that they keep the Bank-Home connection at all, it is purely a gesture of good faith because they want that connection for marketing reasons since the actual online servers are still up and running for all 3DS/Wii U games for the time being. And a cynical gesture considering half the appeal of Home's yearly subs is the ability to import from Bank. But gestures nontheless.

Switch 2 now with Pokemon Mansion will not be the legal albatross that keeps the door open longer, is what I'm saying.

I'd actually say we're both right here. The reason i said they's keep the Bank-Home connection alive until 2027 is because of what can happen because Pokémon getting stuck in Pokémon Home unless they get a future appearance on the Nintendo Switch. I suppose Pokémon like the Snivy and Tepig families could theoretically take the entire Switch era off and go from Bank > Home > "Mansion" as you called it without actually being in one of the main series Switch titles, but... come on, do I really need to explain why that's a bad idea if you're The Pokémon Company?

There is going to come a time at which the existence of all these services is going to be effectively useless due to hardware degradation anyway. Gen 3 cartridges are 20 years old. There's going to come a point at which those that remain in existence are collectors' items instead of ever actively being used, and those that are actively used are probably owned or sold by dedicated hardware specialists who repair them. One day Pal Park is going to become obsolete, and it's going to happen to Poke Transfer, Transporter etc in time as well. Caring excessively about maintaining connectivity - whether on the fans' part or Game Freak's - will inevitably have diminishing returns one day.

That's actually why I'm such a big fan of digital distribution and have done so much research on it, even in spite of the controversial nature of emulation, ROMs, and subscription fees. The combination of digital distribution methods and remakes/remasters allows the lifespan of these games to persist on newer, more powerful hardware long, long after older ports are unable to be accessed in any way. To Nintendo's credit, they've had an incredible strategy to work with this ever since the Virtual Console first originated in 2006. It's a lesser known fact that the same team that made the Virtual Console emulators actually went on to produce every Nintendo Switch Online emulator, and what this allows them to do is start some games by porting the Virtual Console files over to the Switch hardware base, and then they can add all the fancy changes to the files after the fact. This is exactly how the Mario Kart games can support online play now, for example, and is commonly speculated to work with future releases like Pokémon Stadium as well.

I'd also like to go "full Nintendo defender mode" for a second while I'm at it and talk about something the Nintendo Switch Online team did that might have actually saved the ROM library of an entire console. While you all (not necessarily saying any of you) were busy complaining about the subscription fees for the service, especially once they were raised for the Expansion Pass, the team made an absolutely genius move with the development and release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars back in 2020. Long story short, Nintendo couldn't have put GameCube games on the Wii U's Virtual Console even if they wanted to because of a hardware technicality caused by the backwards compatibility with the original Wii. As the team had no way of re-working a Wii U GameCube emulator onto the new Switch hardware, all hope seemed lost for a while, until it was revealed that they took advantage of the lack of the Switch having its own backwards compatibility to allow the pre-existing Wii emulator to handle both Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy at the same time. You guys can say what you want about having to pay a subscription fee, but you have to admit, that was an incredibly smart decision.

 

[doipy hooves]

That's actually why I'm such a big fan of digital distribution and have done so much research on it, even in spite of the controversial nature of emulation, ROMs, and subscription fees. The combination of digital distribution methods and remakes/remasters allows the lifespan of these games to persist on newer, more powerful hardware long, long after older ports are unable to be accessed in any way. To Nintendo's credit, they've had an incredible strategy to work with this ever since the Virtual Console first originated in 2006. It's a lesser known fact that the same team that made the Virtual Console emulators actually went on to produce every Nintendo Switch Online emulator, and what this allows them to do is start some games by porting the Virtual Console files over to the Switch hardware base, and then they can add all the fancy changes to the files after the fact. This is exactly how the Mario Kart games can support online play now, for example, and is commonly speculated to work with future releases like Pokémon Stadium as well.

I'd also like to go "full Nintendo defender mode" for a second while I'm at it and talk about something the Nintendo Switch Online team did that might have actually saved the ROM library of an entire console. While you all (not necessarily saying any of you) were busy complaining about the subscription fees for the service, especially once they were raised for the Expansion Pass, the team made an absolutely genius move with the development and release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars back in 2020. Long story short, Nintendo couldn't have put GameCube games on the Wii U's Virtual Console even if they wanted to because of a hardware technicality caused by the backwards compatibility with the original Wii. As the team had no way of re-working a Wii U GameCube emulator onto the new Switch hardware, all hope seemed lost for a while, until it was revealed that they took advantage of the lack of the Switch having its own backwards compatibility to allow the pre-existing Wii emulator to handle both Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy at the same time. You guys can say what you want about having to pay a subscription fee, but you have to admit, that was an incredibly smart decision.

I like the energy but I think you have mixed up a few different details here about Nintendo's official emulators, and for info on those I mainly cite Yakumono/LuigiBlood as the most knowledgable source I know of on the topic. In terms of NSO, iQue was mainly responsible for the N64 emulators and Panasonic were the main developers on the GBA emulator while NES/GB were made by NERD and they inherited the SNES emulator from Wii U VC made by Intelligent Systems, which is another point that the various VC emulators across Wii/Wii U/3DS were also handled by a mix of those teams in those times.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1625438518217433089

There also wasn't a pre-existing Wii emulator to use for SM3DAS since the Wii U virtual console Wii games were run natively. Sunshine runs on NERD's GameCube emulator while Galaxy was a native port that emulates graphics and audio.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1516354084558802947

On a more Pokemon-related note, I think the potential of Gen 1-3 on NSO could be pretty interesting to actually play these games with online support for their multiplayer functionality, especially for all the interactions in Gen 3 like record mixing and secret bases and minigames, but it's probably not happening anytime soon, even though the Stadiums are going to go up alone anyway as the key example of games designed around connecting to the other games.

 

[bdt2002]

I like the energy but I think you have mixed up a few different details here about Nintendo's official emulators, and for info on those I mainly cite Yakumono/LuigiBlood as the most knowledgable source I know of on the topic. In terms of NSO, iQue was mainly responsible for the N64 emulators and Panasonic were the main developers on the GBA emulator while NES/GB were made by NERD and they inherited the SNES emulator from Wii U VC made by Intelligent Systems, which is another point that the various VC emulators across Wii/Wii U/3DS were also handled by a mix of those teams in those times.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1625438518217433089

There also wasn't a pre-existing Wii emulator to use for SM3DAS since the Wii U virtual console Wii games were run natively. Sunshine runs on NERD's GameCube emulator while Galaxy was a native port that emulates graphics and audio.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1516354084558802947

On a more Pokemon-related note, I think the potential of Gen 1-3 on NSO could be pretty interesting to actually play these games with online support for their multiplayer functionality, especially for all the interactions in Gen 3 like record mixing and secret bases and minigames, but it's probably not happening anytime soon, even though the Stadiums are going to go up alone anyway as the key example of games designed around connecting to the other games.

A few things I'm taking away from this message. First, I suppose what may have thrown some of my information off is that I wasn't aware NERD only worked on a few of these. My guess is that they were put in charge of the base systems while other groups were put in charge of the Expansion Pack's consoles. Next, in terms of the GameCube/Wii situation, this would likely come as a result of NERD working on a separate emulator for the GameCube because of the lack of the Wii emulator, if that made sense. The one that really gets my attention here was iQue working on the N64 emulator, though. Wasn't NERD behind all three of the emulated games of Super Mario 3D All-Stars? Maybe iQue did do the Super Mario 64 one, and I just had my sources mixed up.

Regardless of whoever made each emulator, I'd like to think my initial points of optimism are still valid. I just need to review my sources before I post, apparently. Good to know. Either way, NERD found a way to make the GameCube/Wii situation work, and that's all I care about. I figure it's only a matter of time until we hear about proper NSO implementation for those two. Now, in regards to the main series Pokémon titles, I'm still not entirely convinced they'll be ported over, particularly because Gens 1 & 2 would be on the base price plan and Pokémon Stadium 1 & 2 would both be on the Expansion Pass. Pokémon Yellow in particular also isn't really needed on a console where Let's Go! exists. I would personally rather see Johto and/or Hoenn since it's been longer, especially for Hoenn because of the lack of ORAS on the Switch.

Edit: I'll keep this brief since this may already be leaning too far on the rules about speculation, but I've also been saying for years now that DS emulation will eventually happen again too, but not on the current Switch model. I would expect the DS to come back in a similar manner to how the Wii U did it on the next-generation console everyone can't shut up about. Conveniently, this would also give Nintendo a reason to bring Diamond & Pearl back to said console if BDSP isn't compatible for whatever reason.

 

[Worldie]

Blunt take of the day.

As software developer, let me tell you: if you ever expected any given online service to be up forever, you're delusional and too detached from reality. That stuff costs money to maintain and noone does charity in this environment.

In fact, this is the whole reasoning for which lately there's been a pretty open warfare against the development of "always online" single players with multiplayer elements like Redfall or Diablo 3/4: these games will become literal bricks eventually once the services get taken down, even if you own a phisical copy.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Blunt take of the day.

As software developer, let me tell you: if you ever expected any given online service to be up forever, you're delusional and too detached from reality. That stuff costs money to maintain and noone does charity in this environment.

In fact, this is the whole reasoning for which lately there's been a pretty open warfare against the development of "always online" single players with multiplayer elements like Redfall or Diablo 3/4: these games will become literal bricks eventually once the services get taken down, even if you own a phisical copy.

It's not even that blunt. This was always going to be the case.

As I said, it doesn't make it easier to process for anyone invested in keeping their old mons going (sentimental value is a thing! Idk why so many people seem dead-set on pretending you can just switch that off) but this was always on the cards eventually.

 

[Worldie]

As I said, it doesn't make it easier to process for anyone invested in keeping their old mons going (sentimental value is a thing! Idk why so many people seem dead-set on pretending you can just switch that off) but this was always on the cards eventually.

That is understandable, but alas... at some point you have to.

Like, I've been insanely attached to my World of Warcraft historical mains, a Priest that exists since vanilla and a Paladin rolled on day 1 TBC. So much attached that i've brought them along on every server I've been to over the years (let me tell you, that was a lot of money spent in transfers, with 3 zeros by the end) but at some point, I had to accept the game was no longer for me and I had to move on. I relish thinking of them and the fun time I had, but they're no longer part of my life since a couple years, and if WoW ever shuts down well... amen.

As hard as it is, moving on is part of life. If one can't move on even from pixels, I kinda worry for them and would seek for therapist help, very seriously, because I dread to think what they could do if they ever have a relationship break up.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

As hard as it is, moving on is part of life. If one can't move on even from pixels, I kinda worry for them and would seek for therapist help, very seriously, because I dread to think what they could do if they ever have a relationship break up.

Okay, I think this is really, really overegging it. There is a world of difference between "I can't move on from pixels" and "man it sucks that they're going to close down this service, I really wish they wouldn't". And given that the service still does exist, at least for now, it's not as if any of the Pokemon on any of my older games are permanently trapped there so it's preemptive disappointment more than anything else.

I'm not about to pick up a shotgun and storm Game Freak's offices in a grief-fueled rage (not least because I live in the UK and we can't buy guns at the supermarket here, idk where I'd even get one*).

*/s, in case that wasn't incredibly obvious.

 

[bdt2002]

Okay, I think this is really, really overegging it. There is a world of difference between "I can't move on from pixels" and "man it sucks that they're going to close down this service, I really wish they wouldn't". And given that the service still does exist, at least for now, it's not as if any of the Pokemon on any of my older games are permanently trapped there so it's preemptive disappointment more than anything else.

As much as I agree with there being a difference, I might actually have to side with Worldie on this one. The thing is, you’re both right and you’re comparing apples to oranges. Or in Paldea’s case, oranges to grapes… anyways, it’s a natural consequence of the limitations of technology that sentimental value comes second. I’m a big fan of the Pokémon Ranger trilogy, as an example, and while I’m lucky enough to still have access to all three games, I understand there might be other people who simply don’t. To your credit, I think what you were trying to tell Worldie here wasn’t that they were wrong, so much as it’s important developers try and learn to provide ways to keep those memories alive. It just so happens that the best way to do that is to keep re-releasing your games over digital distribution.

Edit: We should probably get rid of the “Last Day!” part of the thread title now, just in case anyone sees that and gets confused. You never know when someone could see that and think the eShop is still open for one more day.

 

[pika pal]

The main thing I would distinguish between Pokemon and Worldie's WoW example is that the latter seemed to be moved-on-from as a result of falling off the game (which can be for a variety of reasons), whereas in Pokemon's case, I imagine many people with Sentimental Value towards their old Pokemon are still playing the games, and thus still invested in the franchise and/or their characters. I think the latter is more aplicable to someone who detaches themselves from Pokemon to the point of stopping or at least skipping several Gens, or who just plays the Games as RPG's rather than getting much into the fandom (imagine content creators or just more casual buyers who might even sell their games as pre-owned later).

There's nothing wrong with either example or mindset, but I feel it important to distinguish them since they inform very different perspectives and takes on the inevitable decline of these connectivity services. I feel like Bank is the major hiccup in this chain, as Home was a smart idea to "centralize" the transfer of Pokemon without tie to a specific Gen or Console, though this without me knowing the ins-and-outs of what maintaining a "multiplatform" service like Home entails compared to Bank eventually sunsetting with the only system it's tied to.

I don't know for instance if it's a substantial expense to maintain Switch Support for Home even when Switch starts shuttering its games' Multiplayer servers (dependence on Infrastructure vs being a separate service that the games/Switch app can connect to even if SwSh/SV could not themselves go online anymore in 2035 or such), but I feel this would have been a much smoother transition if the "Transfer things" service had been Home from the start, including any potential QoL or smooth-overs it employs like Moveset-wiping to allow transfer between "incompatible" games like PLA or backwards transfer (i.e. sending a Gen 9 mon with Tera Blast back to Gen 8) ala Gen 2's Time Machine (though that was just a delete request instead of wiping things for you).

 

[Coronis]

So I’ve finally completely given up on getting Bank to work…. complete system restart etc. all online things for games work except it just crashes..

If anyone has Psycho Boost Lugia (XD) or V-Create Rayquaza available at all I’m willing to trade many thingsss.

 

[bdt2002]

So I’ve finally completely given up on getting Bank to work…. complete system restart etc. all online things for games work except it just crashes..

If anyone has Psycho Boost Lugia (XD) or V-Create Rayquaza available at all I’m willing to trade many thingsss.

Psycho Boost Lugia is going to be in an extremely interesting scenario when the Pokémon Bank servers eventually shut down at a later date. Not since Generation 3 have there been instances of a Pokémon losing access to a previously obtainable event move due to the inability to transfer between generations. Various moves being “deleted” in games like Sword & Shield for various Pokémon doesn’t count for this, since you can still technically have the moves. You just can’t use them in a battle.

I suppose they could just end up removing Psycho Boost and V-Create from Scarlet & Violet in the case that neither of these event Pokemon could be obtained in a Generation 9 Pokémon title. However, V-Create will likely make it in, largely in part due to Victini, especially if Unova remakes end up happening this generation like some people are expecting.

 

[R_N]

Psycho Boost Lugia is going to be in an extremely interesting scenario when the Pokémon Bank servers eventually shut down at a later date. Not since Generation 3 have there been instances of a Pokémon losing access to a previously obtainable event move due to the inability to transfer between generations. Various moves being “deleted” in games like Sword & Shield for various Pokémon doesn’t count for this, since you can still technically have the moves. You just can’t use them in a battle.

I suppose they could just end up removing Psycho Boost and V-Create from Scarlet & Violet in the case that neither of these event Pokemon could be obtained in a Generation 9 Pokémon title. However, V-Create will likely make it in, largely in part due to Victini, especially if Unova remakes end up happening this generation like some people are expecting.

Whenever Bank goes down, this won't just be PB Lugia and V-Create Rayquaza, it will be a lot of event moves from the first 7 generations. SWSH (& carried over to SV where applicable) made large strides in trying to make more available based on the TMs and so forth available, but they didn't get all of them. Some of those are just because they weren't Japanese events (see: the NYC Pokemon Center events getting snubbed but the obscure Pay Day Rapidash making it over), some because the move wasn't in the TM/TR movepool, and some because they probably just didn't want that move (Eruption Heatran is a more egregious example, Darkrai & Arceus events with the spacetime trio moves a less).


I don't think GF is especially bothered by this, anyway.

 

[Worldie]

I don't think GF is especially bothered by this, anyway.

If anything, the opposite, they've kinda accepted that Event moves are a mistake and haven't really released any event move in a while (bar the meme ones like Happy Hour or Hold Back occasionally), so former event mons becoming completely unavailable is actually better as reduces the necessity for complicate hack checks (which tbfh don't work 99% of the time anyway).

 

[R_N]

If anything, the opposite, they've kinda accepted that Event moves are a mistake and haven't really released any event move in a while (bar the meme ones like Happy Hour or Hold Back occasionally), so former event mons becoming completely unavailable is actually better as reduces the necessity for complicate hack checks (which tbfh don't work 99% of the time anyway).

I broadly agree but also we did just get Fly Pikachu literally this generation lol

 

[Worldie]

I broadly agree but also we did just get Fly Pikachu literally this generation lol

I'm going to be optimistic and just file it under the "meme, irrelevant" category...

(or they could just add Fly to its moveset if they really want to, like they've done with some older event moves like the dogs)

 

[bdt2002]

Whenever Bank goes down, this won't just be PB Lugia and V-Create Rayquaza, it will be a lot of event moves from the first 7 generations. SWSH (& carried over to SV where applicable) made large strides in trying to make more available based on the TMs and so forth available, but they didn't get all of them. Some of those are just because they weren't Japanese events (see: the NYC Pokemon Center events getting snubbed but the obscure Pay Day Rapidash making it over), some because the move wasn't in the TM/TR movepool, and some because they probably just didn't want that move (Eruption Heatran is a more egregious example, Darkrai & Arceus events with the spacetime trio moves a less).


I don't think GF is especially bothered by this, anyway.

Eruption Heatran does actually have a pretty easy solution here, and that’s just to make the move teachable by TM or Move Tutor in any game where Heatran exists. (Leave it to the diehard Guardian Signs fan to use that as my go-to example most of the time.) The same ideology could work for a few others, such as what happened with Dark Pulse Deoxys, a Pokémon initially only available via event until Generation 6 from what I remember. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect solution since most event exclusive moves are stuff like Psycho Boost or V-Create that most likely won’t be a TM or Move Tutor move anytime soon.

Edit: I just looked it up, and Dark Pulse was a move tutor move in Black & White 2. Sorry about that.

 

[Worldie]

Eruption Heatran does actually have a pretty easy solution here, and that’s just to make the move teachable by TM or Move Tutor in any game where Heatran exists. (Leave it to the diehard Guardian Signs fan to use that as my go-to example most of the time.) The same ideology could work for a few others, such as what happened with Dark Pulse Deoxys, a Pokémon initially only available via event until Generation 6 from what I remember. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect solution since most event exclusive moves are stuff like Psycho Boost or V-Create that most likely won’t be a TM or Move Tutor move anytime soon.

I think Eruption Heatran is specifically one of those cases they *do not* want around because it's too powerful and they *want* these mons to just not be available in first place.
Same as V-Create Rayquaza or Psycho Boost Lugia.

It's basically due to moves like these that the whole "current gen clause" exists in first place, if they never did release op event moves or discontinued tutors, they would never have needed it.