Topic: More news tomorrow!

[Joeno]

Nope, Poketransfer is a separate thing to download and is free. Source: Pokemon website.

Nope, PokeTransfer requires you to download PokeBank and uses the latter to transfer the Pokemon. To quote the official site:

When you download Pokémon Bank, you can also download the linked application Poké Transporter! When you insert a Pokémon Black Version, Pokémon White Version, Pokémon Black Version 2, or Pokémon White Version 2 Game Card into a Nintendo 3DS system, you'll be able to use Poké Transporter to transfer Pokémon from these games into their own online Boxes. Then, you can easily transfer those Pokémon into Pokémon X and Pokémon Y using Pokémon Bank!

[Joe_Pokemon2015- MEGA RAYQUAZA!]

They brought back the first gen starter Pokémon- I cannot believe that we are getting TWO starters!

[Angelic Lapras King]

They brought back the first gen starter Pokémon- I cannot believe that we are getting TWO starters!

3 if you count the event Torchic.

Considering this is the 6th gen and you can have 6 Party Pokemon, I wonder if we'll run into the other starters (Johto, Sinnoh, Unova) along the way..... XD

[Joe_Pokemon2015- MEGA RAYQUAZA!]

3 if you count the event Torchic.

Considering this is the 6th gen and you can have 6 Party Pokemon, I wonder if we'll run into the other starters (Johto, Sinnoh, Unova) along the way..... XD

Two starters are better than one. And I can say that with pride. Hope they also allow us to choose a third starter. How about Mega Feraligatr?

[Sappy]

Nope, PokeTransfer requires you to download PokeBank and uses the latter to transfer the Pokemon. To quote the official site:

Yeah, my bad. I reread it and was like; "Oh wait, you need to download both."

However, an idea is you get a free trial of Pokemon Bank so you could transfer any Pokemon you wanted during that trial. Which when you first get Poke Transporter most players would immediately transfer quite a batch of Pokemon over.

Obviously, some people like the ability of constantly having to transfer Pokemon for whatever reasons... shiny chaining in D/P is the first one that comes to my mind or Join Avenue.

I also like the idea it doesn't look like there's a poor minigame to go with PokeTransporter.

[.~:Sly Foxx:~.]

... Ewwwww, /blugh/. Is this really the way Nintendo is moving? x_____________________________x Damnit, this is the first bit of news I'm disappointed with. Though maybe I shouldn't complain too bad... If they have a free trial you should at least be able to switch your Pokemon over to your X/Y cartridge without having to pay for it. Still... And I don't really like these Mega Evolutions, apart from Blastoise. Maybe they'll grow on me... =/

I guess it's also possible that once the free trial of Pokebank runs out, maybe you'll still be able to use PokeTransfer and it's just a way of bribing people into trying it out so they might start paying for it?

[Sappy]

Literally it's 500 yen which equates to like £3.23 or something. It's not like it's £30 or something ridiculous. It sounds literally like a maintenance fee as it should be.

[.~:Sly Foxx:~.]

Yeah, but that's paid regularly, and it's gonna stack up. =/ I really don't like 'Pay-Monthly' things... It's a system designed to keep extrapolating money out of people, and the more the system moves in that way, the more suspicious I become of it.

Plus, I only rarely transfer 'mons over, so I don't want to be paying for a service the whole time which I barely use. There are very few people who REGULARLY want to transfer Pokemon over in fact, so... The subscription based method of paying makes me unhappy. I'm quite sure they could have managed Poketransfer without people having to pay for it, and without even needing to use some cloud-type system that would need maintainance in the first place.

[Richard and Blaziken]

It's an annual fee, which means yearly. So like... $3-4 a year. That doesn't sound bad at all. I understand the frustration, but I'm just clearing up that it's not really 'regular' or monthly.

[Joeno]

It's still money you're paying for a system that could be handled locally (PokeTransfer gets the Pokemon from your gen V game, stores them on your SD card, then loads them into your gen VI game).

It'd be simpler to implement that way too, as all the core functionality (reading and writing) is already present in these apps, you just wouldn't need the online system.

Considering you're already paying £30-£40 for the game, putting on an additional £2-£3 per year just to transfer at will seems a bit much to ask.

[Richard and Blaziken]

Absolutely, I'm not really taking much of a stance here, as I can see the pros and cons of it, especially considering how it will effect future generations of Pokemon, but I'm trying to clarify that it's not a monthly thing, and that the fee is relatively manageable for most people.

You could always trade with friends via B/W/B2/W2, have them transfer them over, and then send 'em over to your X/Y game. Unless they shut down the GTS for 5th gen, which I sort of vaguely recall hearing something about a few moths ago, but can't quite recall.

[RocketMember002]

Hopefully the transfer thing isn't in any way connected to the subscription - I can get it with the free trial and never touch the box thing again. As long as they don't intentionally lower current storage to force us to use theirs, always the problem when they start adding paid features.

I'm starting to hate mevo's slightly less, blastoise attacking with it's mouth when it has 3 cannons is just stupid though.

[Wolstenholme]

Cheesed off that you have to pay for Pokemon Bank. Don't you have enough of my money Gamefreak/Pokemon franchise?!?!

Also: definitely picking Chespin and Squirtle... I know if I pick Charmander I'll end up ditching it... I always do.

[RocketMember002]

Also: definitely picking Chespin and Squirtle... I know if I pick Charmander I'll end up ditching it... I always do.

You're just like that evil man from the Anime episode that left his charmander to die in the rain!

[Joeno]

RM002 - PokeTransfer IS related to the subscription. It doesn't transfer the gen V Pokemon to the game, it only transfers it to your PokeBank boxes. You can transfer during the trial and be okay, but if you want to use it later (for example for specific TM and move tutor moves, or gen IV shiny chaining) you'll need to get the subscription.

I believe gen 5 GTS has been announced to be closed down around the same time as Pokemon Bank being released.

Which is totally a coincidence, I'm sure.

Annual cost, by the way, is 500 yen, which is apparently $5 a year. COnsidering the usual markup on these things, I wouldn't be surprised if we're looking at £4 a year for us.

There's also the principle of the whole thing. Turning what is an essential feature of the game for a lot of people - taking their favourites with them - into a paid option, feels (no matter what the cost) sleazy and the sort of thing you'd expect of lesser companies, especially when it's clear the reason to do it isn't technical. It can be done without the online element, but they nevertheless force you to go through their paid service. Even if they charged a one-time fee for the PokeTransfer, it'd be a cheaper way that would last a lot longer - I doubt it'll be available when they're thinking about gen VII.

It's also one of those bad precedents. Right now it's just transferring Pokemon, but it seems to be the sort of lead-in that'll go to other areas of the game. If the GTS won't run through PokeBank now, it probably will in a future system ("see how much easier it is when you can arrange it all online") and online battling would fall into the same category.

It's one thing to expand your options through payment (in this case, more box space). It's another to lock what's seen as standard functionality behind it.