Nintendo details 'Pokemon Home' iPhone app and service subscription

Nintendo has announced a February release date for Pokemon Home, how much it will cost, and what games are compatible with the service.

Pokemon Home is a cloud service for iOS and Nintendo Switch that will allow players to house their captured Pokemon from throughout the console series and "Pokemon Go" in one place. The service will primarily be on mobile devices where all of the user facing features exist. The Switch will have some features, but mostly be used for transferring monsters from Switch console titles.

There is a basic and premium plan, with basic being free but very limited. Basic users will be able to store only 30 Pokemon and use some of the trading options. A premium plan will get users access to 6,000 storage slots, and all of the trade features, including hosting their own trading room. An additional premium only feature will let users access more data about a Pokemon essential for competitive play like natures and EV stats.

The iOS app will let you trade with people all around the world!

The iOS app will let you trade Pokemon with people all around the world

The mobile app will be the only place users can trade, see battle records, receive news, and get special Pokemon from a function called Mystery Gift. There will also be a new feature called "Your Room" which will let you customize a page using stickers earned from challenges within the app, which is shareable to friends. The app will attribute points to your account as you add more Pokemon to your collection, and these points can be exchanged for in game Battle Points on the Switch titles.

Pokemon Home will restore a missing component of the main series games, the National Pokedex. While not adding it to the actual console games, it will give users the satisfaction that they can still "catch em all," even if all Pokemon can't be used in a single title.

The new Nintendo service will offer three paid plans. A monthly, 3 monthly, or yearly plan for $2.99, $4.99, and $15.99 respectively. Fans of the series will likely quickly grab the annual price, which is only $6 more expensive than the previous Pokemon cloud service, Pokemon Bank.

"Pokemon Home" will be available in February and work with "Pokemon Sword" and "Pokemon Shield," "Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee," and "Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu." It is also compatible with Pokemon Bank, which works with most of the other titles in the series and exists on 3DS.

"Pokemon Go" compatibility is announced, but listed as "coming soon."