Nintendo Delays Launch of PokeBank and PokeTransporter

December 28, 2013 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Technical difficulties have delayed the release of both the PokeBank and PokeTransporter apps with no new release date in sight, Nintendo confirmed in a press release on their site on Wednesday.

For millions of Pokémon X & Y owners in North America and Europe, the Dec. 27 release of the PokeBank and PokeTransporter apps couldn’t come soon enough, but server delays and security concerns have left the potentially nifty game extensions up in the air completely. Giving gamers the ability to send Pokémon from older games to the new Pokémon X and Y titles, the PokeBank and PokeTransporter apps were also supposed to come with Celebi, a fairy/grass Pokémon not found in the main game.

The news is a perplexing one, considering Nintendo doesn’t have nearly the online pressures of Microsoft and Sony. But with over six million copies of Pokémon X & Y sold since its release, the game, along with several new online Wii U titles, have put more traffic on the Nintendo servers than expected.

“Due to the high traffic, players are having trouble setting up Nintendo Network IDs and downloading content in the Nintendo eShop on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS,” Nintendo said in a press release on their site on Dec. 26. “We truly regret the inconvenience, and wish to reassure everyone that providing a solution is our top priority. We apologize for the delay and thank you for your continued patience.”

While Nintendo points to server issues, video game websites the likes of Kotaku and GameFaqs say the game’s security issues are the main concern. According to reports on Kotaku, hacked Pokémon from older games can still be transferred to the new games.

Evidence of Pokemon with unreleased abilities and other obvious hacks, such as a level one Gengar, are proof that Nintendo’s attempts to secure the service have failed.

“I just wish they would stop worrying about trying to stop the hackers,” said Michigan gamer Michael Buonvicino, 33. “They won’t be able to.”

For other gamers looking forward to the new service, all they can do is hope Nintendo can learn from its recent hiccups and provide the service they promised for the holidays.

“Nintendo did a lot of things right in 2013, but there were definitely a lot of release dates that were very close to each other including the newest Zelda and Mario game coming out on the same day,” said Jordan White, a founding member of Streetpass NYC, a group of gamers who meet up and play Nintendo 3DS games in various locations in New York City. “With these application delays, we hope that Nintendo and the Pokémon Company might be able to fix the reported issues, besides the server load, such as the addition of hacked and altered Pokemon that make the ecosystem for the game franchise unfair for the people that play in it.”

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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