The Pokemon Company have, out of nowhere, announced that they will be sharing new Pokemon news tomorrow with a “Pokemon Presents” broadcast. It will air at 6 AM Pacific Time, and as per the description of the Japanese broadcast on YouTube, will be roughly 11 minutes long, and share information on several things, including Pokemon Sword and Shield’s expansions.

The first of those two expansions, The Isle of Armor, is launching tomorrow, so we can expect new promotion for that – probably a trailer – while new details might also be announced for the second expansion, The Crown Tundra, which is set to release this Autumn.

What else can we expect beyond that? Well, that’s all guesswork right now. A new Detective Pikachu game was announced for the Switch a year ago, as was a new mobile Pokemon title that is being developed by Tencent’s TiMi Studio (the developers of Call of Duty Mobile)- so we could hear something about those. Updates on Pokemon Sleep and Pokemon Home might also be incoming.

Is there also a possibility of an entirely new Pokemon game? It’s unlikely, but who knows? At least we don’t have to wait long to find out- stay tuned to GamingBolt, and we’ll bring you all the updates from the broadcast tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/Pokemon/status/1272877200505782273

The successor to Pokemon Bank, Pokemon Home, is now live across mobile devices and the Switch. One thing about the series has always been managing the critters you catch, and something like Home makes it a lot easier to do so. And if you have any doubts, you can take a look at the app’s first week downloads.

As reported by Sensor Tower, within the first week alone Pokemon Home has been downloaded 1.3 million times. That’s a pretty strong number. Not only that, it’s estimated to have already brought in $1.8 million in user spending already. That may not seem like a lot, but considering the low cost of the premium plans, it’s not too shabby. The bulk of the downloads came from the United States with Japan in a close second.

Pokemon Home is a cloud based storage system that allows you manage up to 6,000 Pokemon and is currently compatible with a range of titles in the franchise, including the Pokemon Bank that preceded it on 3DS. You can read more about its features and premium plans through here.

Nintendo’s Pokemon HOME app, which allows for managing one’s Pokemon via cloud servers, is out now. Nintendo Switch users can download it from the eShop while mobile owners on iOS and Android can get it from the App Store and Google Play respectively. The app essentially allows players to transfer Pokemon between different versions of the game, trade and much more.

The service offers a free plan and Premium plan, the latter costing $2.99 per month, $4.99 for three months and $15.99 for 12 months. Some of the benefits that come with the Premium plan include 6,000 storage slots, 10 Pokemon that can be placed in the Wonder Box and the ability to host Room Trades. In comparison, free plan users only get 30 slots for storing Pokemon, can only join Room Trades and so on.

Still, if you really want a means to maintain your National Dex, Pokemon HOME is the solution. More Pokemon content is on the way in the coming months with the release of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX in March for Switch. Two expansions, The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra, are also slated to release in June and Fall respectively for Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have announced more details for Pokemon HOME, the Pokemon collection and management app that will go live in February. Coming to Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch, it will allow players to link supported titles and store their Pokemon in cloud servers. Supported titles include Pokemon Sword and Shied and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! on Switch (Pokemon GO support is in the works).

Pokemon HOME allows for several different ways to trade Pokemon including the Global Trade System for outlining exactly which Pokemon you want or wish to receive, Room Trade for trading with up to 20 people, and Friend Trade for trading with friends. There’s also the National Pokedex for registering different Pokemon and their forms, Mystery Gifts and much more. Free and Premium plans are available but there are a number of differences.

Free users can only deposit 30 Pokemon while Premium users can deposit 6,000. Premium users can also create rooms to trade in while free users can only join rooms. Only one Pokemon can be placed in the Global Trade System for free users while Premium users can place three. A Premium plan costs $2.99 per month, $4.99 per three months and $15.99 for 12 months on the Nintendo eShop, though prices are subject to change. For more details, check out the official website here.

Nintendo made plenty of new announcements during the recent Pokemon Direct, including Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX for the Switch and two meaty upcoming expansion packs for Pokemon Sword and Shield. Also confirmed during the presentation was a release window for Pokemon HOME, which was announced last year for iOS and Android devices.

Pokemon HOME – a cloud service compatible with the Switch and mobile devices that allows users to store and trade Pokemon across multiple games, a la Pokemon Bank – will be launching in February 2020. An exact release date hasn’t been confirmed, but more information will be shared in the coming days and weeks leading up to its launch. Among other things, users will also be able to transfer the new Pokemon being added to Sword and Shield with the upcoming expansions through trades even if they don’t own the expansions themselves.

Check out the announcement in the timestamped video below.

https://youtu.be/o5afasEAiN0?t=1051

Anticipation for the customary beginning-of-the-year Nintendo Direct has been ramping up, and recent rumblings have only ramped it up further. But though there is going to be a Direct very soon, it’s probably not what you thought. Nintendo have announced on Twitter that they’ll be broadcasting a Pokemon-focused Direct presentation on January 9 at 6.30 AM PT, and it will have “roughly 20 minutes of new Pokemon information.”

This comes as a surprise because Pokemon Sword and Shield are not even two months old yet, so it’s hard to imagine what major announcement they could use as a centrepiece for this broadcast. A far-fetched and very unlikely guess would be remakes for the Gen 4 games, those being next in line to receive the remake treatment after 2014’s OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire. It’s possible that Nintendo’s got a third version planned for Sword and Shield, but it seems unlikely that they’d announce it so quickly after the original duo’s release- it’s not like they’re not selling well, after all. 

There’s some other Pokemon-related stuff that they could talk about. Pokemon Home and Pokemon Sleep both haven’t received an awful lot of details since their announcement, so those two might feature prominently. Meanwhile, it was also confirmed a while back that Tencent’s TiMi Studio (the developers of Call of Duty: Mobile) are also working on an unannounced Pokemon game, presumably for smart devices.

Finally, a Detective Pikachu game was also announced for the Switch last year, though Nintendo have said next to nothing about it since then. Of course, there’s also the possibility that Nintendo might spend some time talking about future pot-launch support for Pokemon Sword and Shield, even though they don’t usually do that sort of stuff, especially for Pokemon.

One thing we can be sure won’t be making an appearance is another Let’s Go-style game, with Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda having confirmed that the developers have no plans to make another one of those right now.

Either way, we’ll know more just two days from now, so at least we don’t have to wait long. Stay tuned, and we’ll keep you updated on any and all info that comes our way.

Tune in on 1/9 at 6:30 a.m. PT for roughly 20 minutes of new Pokémon information in a livestreamed Pokémon Direct presentation. https://t.co/d1Xx3bUMG0 pic.twitter.com/ct9DAJt4FU

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 7, 2020

The Pokemon Press Conference yesterday was an eventful one. The Pokemon Company announced a couple of new Pokemon projects for mobile devices, as well as a new Detective Pikachu game for the Switch. On top of all that, they also announced Pokemon HOME, a new cloud-based service that will act as the hub for all Pokemon games across basically every device.

Pokemon HOME will allow you to trade with games across multiple Pokemon games on multiple devices. It’ll connect with Pokemon GO on mobile devices, with Pokemon Let’s Go and the upcoming Pokemon Sword and Shield on the Nintendo Switch, and with multiple Pokemon games on the 3DS through Pokemon Bank, allowing you to bring over all your Pokemon into a single space.

The app, launching for iOS and Android in 2020, will also allow you to trade with other people- with friends, with other users nearby, as well as with users across the globe.

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

Pokémon HOME isn’t tied to a single game system, meaning you can connect with Pokémon Bank, along with #PokemonLetsGo, #PokemonSwordShield, and #PokemonGO. It also features trading functionality. #PokemonHOME

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 29, 2019

Trainers, we’re working hard to create a future that brings people and Pokémon closer together.

Bring your Pokémon home to #PokemonHOME in early 2020.

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 29, 2019