This article was originally written for TheNintendoVillage.com, a website I founded and ran from 2018 to 2021.

The upcoming cloud storage system for Pokémon has just gotten a shedload of new details, courtesy of the Pokémon Company - chief among them being the fact that there are two plans available.

The free plan allows you to store up to 30 Pokémon, and gives you a couple of limited trading options (more on that shortly), whereas the Premium plan gives you unlimited storage, expanded trading options and a few other features. The service will be available via two different apps, one on Nintendo Switch and another on smartphones.

The aforementioned trading options involve Wonder Box, which allow you to place a Pokémon into the box, ready to be traded whenever someone takes you up on the offer - even when you’re not using the app - and GTS which works in a similar way, but lets you specify which Pokémon you want to trade for. You’ll also be able to request Pokémon that you haven’t yet added to your National Dex.

You’ll also be able to trade Pokémon with other players in Room Trade. Each room can host up to 20 players, but you won’t know what Pokémon you’re receiving until the trade is complete. Lastly, players over the age of 16 will be able to add friends via the Pokémon Home app and trade with their buddies.

As mentioned, there are some differences between the two plans. Check out the table below to see the variances.

The Premium plan costs $2.99 for a 30 day subscription, $4.99 for a 90 day subscription, and $15.99 for a year.

As you may expect, the service will also allow you to transfer Pokémon to and from Pokémon Sword and Shield, while Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee will also be able to transfer Pokémon to the service, but won’t be able to receive them - so think twice before you upload any ‘mons from those games!

Any Pokémon you transfer to the service - be it from mainline games, Pokémon Go or via Pokémon Bank - will be added to your national dex, with seperate registrations for Mega Evolutions and Gigantamax versions being registered as well. The mobile app version of Home will also show you the various Pokédex entries for each Pokemon, as well as their abilities and learnset.

You’ll also be able to receive mystery gifts through the service, and if you have the premium plan, you’ll have access to the Judge function to assess how strong your Pokémon are. There’ll also be news alerts for gift Pokémon and official tournaments, Battle Data and the ability to earn Pokémon Home points which can be exchanged for Battle Points in the likes of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Needless to say there’s a lot of features included in the service.

You can check out further information on all of this over on the official site.

There’s no word yet on a specific launch date for Pokémon Home, but the website has reiterated that it will be arriving in February. With the Pokémon Global Link closing on 24 February, we would expect Pokémon Home to go live around that sort of time. We’ll keep you updated as to when we know more!

Will you be signing up for Pokémon Home? Let us know down in the comments!

Source: Pokémon.com