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Pokemon Bank shutdown will make 5 Pokemon unobtainable in modern Switch games, and fans want to know when that changes

GamesRadar+
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TDGN Brief

Pokémon Bank's shutdown on 25 February 2027 will permanently trap five species—Spinda, Deoxys, Celebi, Victini, Zarude, Iron Leaves, and Walking Wake—outside modern Switch games, leaving players unable to complete the full Pokédex in Pokémon Home until future updates arrive.

On 25 February 2027, Nintendo will shut down Pokémon Bank, the 3DS storage app that has served as the only bridge between older generations and the modern Switch ecosystem. The closure will cut off the transfer path for Pokémon from games dating back to the Game Boy Advance, effectively stranding seven generations of creatures on their original cartridges. While the vast majority of the 1,025 species can still be uploaded to Pokémon Home via current Switch and Switch 2 titles, a small handful will become unobtainable in the modern games.

The missing Pokémon include Spinda, Deoxys, Celebi, Victini, Zarude, Iron Leaves, and Walking Wake. Currently, Deoxys can be caught in the eShop versions of FireRed and LeafGreen, and once those games receive Pokémon Home support in October 2027, that species will become transferable. The same update will reward players who complete the FireRed and LeafGreen Pokédex with a free Celebi, bringing the total obtainable to 1,019 out of 1,025. The remaining five—Spinda, Victini, Zarude, Iron Leaves, and Walking Wake—have no announced path to modern games, and fans are pressing for clarity on when or if they will become available.

The shutdown marks a significant loss for players who value preserving their original teams, ribbons, and rare forms accumulated over decades. While competitive and completionist players can still achieve a functional modern Pokédex, the missing species represent a tangible gap in the series' history. The Pokémon Company has not confirmed plans to reintroduce these creatures through future events, raids, or game updates, leaving the community in a state of uncertainty. Coverage from Kotaku first reported the shutdown's implications, while GamesRadar+ and Dexerto – Games later detailed the specific Pokémon affected and the community's frustration at the lack of a timeline for resolution.

  • Pokémon Bank shuts down on 25 February 2027, ending transfers from pre-Switch games.
  • Seven Pokémon—Spinda, Deoxys, Celebi, Victini, Zarude, Iron Leaves, and Walking Wake—will be unobtainable in modern Switch games after the closure.
  • An October 2027 update will add FireRed and LeafGreen support to Pokémon Home, making Deoxys and Celebi available, but five species remain unaccounted for.
  • Fans are demanding a clear roadmap for the missing Pokémon, with no official announcement yet from The Pokémon Company.

This synthesis was derived and curated on the fly by TDGN’s newsroom from 3 outlets’ breaking reports, and updates automatically as coverage develops. It may contain errors — the outlets’ original reporting is linked below.

Who reported it, and when

  1. first Kotaku With The Shutdown Of Pokémon Bank, Some Cool Elements From Old Games Are Being Lost
  2. +2h GamesRadar+ Pokemon Bank shutdown will make 5 Pokemon unobtainable in modern Switch games, and fans want to know when that changes
  3. +3h Dexerto – Games Pokemon Bank shutdown: Every Shiny, form and Ribbon affected

This page records how the games press covered one story. The reporting belongs to the outlets listed; every headline links to the original. Counts update as more outlets publish. The article itself follows below.

Steady3 outletsfirst: Kotaku

Pokemon Bank shutdown will make 5 Pokemon unobtainable in modern Switch games, and fans want to know when that changes

GamesRadar+ · ·

On February 25, 2027, Pokemon Bank will shut down, leaving seven generations worth of creatures trapped on old game cartridges. It's a sad milestone if you want to keep adventuring with your childhood Pokemon pals, but if you're purely interested in completing the modern Pokedex, you still can – well, mostly. With the app's closure, a small handful of Pokemon will be unobtainable in the modern console games, and nobody's quite sure when that's going to change.

The current hub for digital Pokemon collecting is Pokemon Home, a storage app that allows you to upload your creatures from any of the Switch games. For now, it also accepts transfers from Pokemon Bank, a 3DS app which – through a long, convoluted history of transfers, trades, and Virtual Console releases – allows you to upload Pokemon from every game released prior to the Switch.

There are now 1,025 Pokemon, and 1,018 of them can be uploaded to Pokemon Home via the modern Switch and Switch 2 games. The missing 'mons? Spinda, Deoxys, Celebi, Victini, Zarude, Iron Leaves, and Walking Wake. Currently, you can catch Deoxys in the eShop versions of FireRed and LeafGreen, and once those games are updated with Pokemon Home support in October, you'll be able to upload that catch with all the others.

That gets us to 1,019 out of 1,025. The Pokemon Company recently announced that the October Pokemon Home update will also give a reward to players who've fully completed the FireRed and LeafGreen Pokedex – a free Celebi. Now we're up to 1,020, but the immediate good news stops with just five Pokemon left to go.

A character welcomes trainers in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen
(Image credit: Nintendo, The Pokemon Company, Game Freak)

Zarude is a relatively modern addition to the series, as it was introduced in Pokemon Sword and Shield, and is still distributed via online events about once a year. It's safe to expect another such opportunity will come around soon enough. Similarly, Walking Wake and Iron Leaves have been regularly distributed through events for Scarlet and Violet.

Then there's Victini. This li'l guy dates back to Pokemon Black and White on the DS, and has only ever been available via event distributions. And even those have dried up since 2022. There is an important caveat here, since Victini can be caught in Pokemon Go and transferred into Home that way. But if you want to catch all your Pokemon through the mainline RPGs, Victini is currently off the board.

The real, final outlier – the one who's going to leave your Pokedex sitting at 1,024 out of 1,025 – is Spinda. You can catch this Pokemon without much hassle in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but it's got a weird, unique gimmick: a spot pattern with billions of unique values. That seems to be the reason it's the one and only Pokemon from the Diamond and Pearl remakes that can't be uploaded to Home.

Legends Z-A and its DLC made a wide array of hard-to-obtain Pokemon reasonable to catch once again, but these outliers are all notable exceptions. They've been the subject of plenty of discussion among Pokemon fans on social media, with a lingering question: when will these creatures be catchable again?

Maybe some of them will be reintroduced in Pokemon Winds and Waves. Maybe we'll get to see Spinda again in a seemingly inevitable eShop release of Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Or maybe The Pokemon Company will simply open the floodgates with a host of event giveaways in the near future. For now, we're all just gonna have to make peace with some incomplete checklists.

Check out our ranking of the best Pokemon games.

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