One week after Nintendo unveiled its surprise FireRed and LeafGreen remakes for Pokemon Day, The Pokemon Company has revealed that the two beloved decades-old gems will indeed be compatible with the Pokemon Home cloud service.
Chief operating officer Takato Utsunomiya states as much during today's Pokemon Presents showcase stream – which you can now go back and watch in full on YouTube – introducing the remakes and their launch today first.
"The Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen games – remakes of the Pokemon Red and Pokemon Green games in Japan – were released on Game Boy Advance in 2004," recalls Utsunomiya.
"Today, these games have been made available to play once more as download-exclusive titles on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2."
But that's all old news, having dropped a good seven days ago now – what really stands out is what the COO says next: "We also plan to make these titles compatible with Pokemon Home in the future." This means that, yes, you can finally transfer GBA-era 'mons to new games like Pokemon Legends: Z-A, and it'll be a whole lot easier than the arduous transfer process we once had to endure.
Alongside Utsunomiya's words comes a handy chart that depicts as much, highlighting how you can move your Pokemon from FireRed and LeafGreen to Pokemon Home and then withdraw them into other games, like Scarlet and Violet.
It doesn't appear as though you can do things the other way around – bring Pokemon from more modern titles to the old-gen remakes – but Utsunomiya's statement is admittedly a bit confusing.
"This way," as he concludes, "you can bring Pokemon obtained in other Pokemon RPG series titles on adventures with you, or you can send Pokemon to visit Pokemon Champions." That does sort of sound like it implies it's a vice-versa situation, but the chart doesn't seem to show that it is, so… Only time will tell, I suppose.
For now, it's good enough news that Pokemon Home compatibility is coming at all.
Excited about the creature collectors from Game Freak and Nintendo yourself? Here's all we know about Pokemon Winds and Waves, the hotly anticipated Gen 10 title.
