Transferring Pokémon from previous generations of games into the current generations has been a celebrated part of the gameplay for more than ten years. Instead of keeping this process in-game and free of charge, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are seeking additional money from their customers in the form of annual subscription fees. The latest transfer system, a 3DS/2DS app called Poké Transporter, is attached to the cloud storage service called Pokémon Bank. Pokémon Bank is a paid service, and there is no way to use Poké Transporter without it. This means that in order for a player to transfer any Pokémon from his or her fifth generation games, he or she would have to buy a subscription to Pokémon Bank.

Exploiting Pokémon players' nostalgia and desire for a sense of continuity between games is disrespectful, especially to longtime fans of the franchise, as if each of us has not already spent hundreds of dollars on Pokémon games and Nintendo handheld game systems. The fact that we even have multiple generations worth of games to transfer Pokémon between speaks to our ongoing loyalty to the Pokémon brand, but we feel that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have chosen to disregard that loyalty in their pursuit of profits. Poké Transporter should be completely free for all Pokémon players, not just the ones who pay for access to Pokémon Bank.

Time Capsule (introduced in 1999) allowed players to transfer Pokémon from Red, Blue, and Yellow into Gold, Silver, and Crystal. This in-game system required two consoles and a Link Cable, but was free. Some Pokémon were even eligible for a backward transfer.

Pal Park (introduced in 2006) allowed players to transfer Pokémon from Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen into Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver. This in-game system was free.

Poké Transfer (introduced in 2010) allowed players to transfer Pokémon from Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver into Black, White, Black 2, and White 2. This in-game system required two consoles, but was free.

We would ask that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company examine their own track record as outlined above, and reconsider charging every player for the right to transfer the Pokémon they obtained in previous games into the sixth generation. A 30-day free trial of Pokémon Bank is insufficient and not a reasonable compromise. The Pokémon that we would be transferring have already been caught, hatched, traded, or fatefully encountered, and the consoles and games that we would be using have already been purchased.

It seems like Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are attempting to make up for Pokémon Bank's impractical overhead by moving the transfer system, a tradtionally in-game feature, into an external app that requires a paid subscription to Pokémon Bank in order to function. While we respect that there are certain costs that come with maintaining a cloud service like Pokémon Bank, those of us who never intended to use Pokémon Bank should not have to pay Nintendo nor The Pokémon Company to keep Pokémon Bank afloat when all we want is access to a basic function of the games that should never have been separated from the actual games in the first place.

Please make Poké Transporter completely free of charge and independent of Pokémon Bank.