The Pokémon Company has provided an update to an article on the official Pokémon Support website, clarifying there will be a PokéCoin cost for transferring Pokémon over from Pokémon Go to Pokémon HOME. It won’t be a recurring or one-time cost as many initially thought, however.
Instead, players will be able to use PokéCoins acquired or purchased in Pokémon Go to shorten a cooldown that will be applied after transferring a certain number of Pokémon to HOME from the mobile game.
There is no information about how long the cooldown will be or how many Pokémon can actually be transferred over before players get locked out for that set duration. TPC now asks fans to wait for future updates on how the transfer method will work.
This change was made very quickly after the original support article in the Frequently Asked Questions portion of the HOME section pointed out that PokéCoins might be needed to transfer Pokémon over.
Even hardcore Pokémon Go fans were not happy at the prospect of a paywall being implemented, especially since HOME’s service already charges players to store and transfer more than just a handful of Pokémon at a time.
Using HOME to transfer between the Let’s Go! series of games, HOME, and Sword and Shield is completely free, though limited if you don’t have a paid membership. If you have Pokémon Bank from back in the 3DS days, then you’ll need a subscription to transfer over your older Pokémon.
These limitations and the requirement for a paid option for 3DS or older transfers already had HOME sitting on thin ice with a large portion of the Pokémon community.
Hopefully, this newest wave of backlash will push Niantic and TPC to change their minds and make the Go and HOME link completely free from microtransactions. Though we will need to wait for a full list of details once TPC is ready to reveal them later this year.
