Gotta Meme 'em All: Pokémon Bank Delay
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In a fandom as big as Nintendo's, memes are often born from disappointing moves or decisions made by the Big N that are prone to anger many fans. Whether it be the release date of a confirmed title not being announced for months, or a certain game from Nintendo's "Golden Years" not being remade for one of their modern consoles yet, Nintendo's shortcomings can spark memes of epic proportion, and the delayed release of a certain piece of utility software known as Pokémon Bank is no exception.
Shortly after the release of Generation VI's first title, Pokémon X and Y, Game Freak announced the release of a utility application compatible with it, the Pokémon Bank. The Pokémon Bank was revealed to be an application downloadable on the Nintendo 3DS eShop which could be used for an annual fee of ¥500 in Japan, US$4.99 in North America, £4.49 in the United Kingdom, and €4.99 in Europe to transfer Pokémon between copies of Pokémon X and Y via a cloud-based service, removing the need for a second system to perform a trade. It was also revealed to come with a companion application, Poké Transporter, a service that would allow a one-way transport of Pokémon from the previous generation of games to the current generation, a feature which has been customary in the core series games since Pal Park in Generation IV. Slated for a release date of December 25, 2013 in Japan, December 27 in the Americas and Europe, and December 28 in Australia and New Zealand, with a free 30-day trial to be available to all players, Pokémon Bank was cause for much excitement and anticipation in the Pokémon fandom, mostly because of Poké Transporter.
On December 26, the day after its release in Japan, the large amount of traffic generated by Pokémon Bank and Christmas sales had rendered online services on both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U unusable, forcing Nintendo to pull it off of the eShop. Players who had already downloaded it were still able to use the service, meaning that Japanese players who had already downloaded it before it was pulled down would be the only people able to use it for a while.
This enraged many players, mainly those in non-Japanese regions who had not even been given the opportunity to download Pokémon Bank yet. For the next month, people took to the internet to criticize Nintendo for not expecting the online traffic the application would garner, as well as taking it down so abruptly. On social media outlets such as Twitter, any message that Nintendo's official account would post, regardless of its content, would be met with scathing replies by fans demading to know when the application would be released.
| “ They should have seen that comming and release Pokemon Bank / Transfer earlier that year. IMO it should have come just weeks after X/Ys release. I want to finally transfer my Pokemons to X/Y >__> ” | ||
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Image macros were produced mocking Nintendo for Pokémon Bank's absence and often insinuating that it would never be released. NateWantsToBattle, a YouTuber known for writing and performing parodies of pop songs relating to the Pokémon franchise, released Pokémon Bank, a parody of Daniel Powter's Bad Day, begging Nintendo to release it. At the time of this article's publication, this video has nearly 470,000 views. A Twitter account called @IsPokeBankOut was created, updating followers with the latest news on Pokémon Bank's release, such as "no" and "yes! just kidding".
This meme, although very prolific in its time, met with a quick death. Pokémon Bank was re-released on the Japanese eShop on January 21, 2014, and the rest of the world followed shortly after, with Europe, Australia, and New Zealand getting it on February 4, and the Americas getting it on February 5. The fandom initially rejoiced over finally being able to access the application, but since there was nothing to complain about anymore, the subject was quickly dropped, and everyone moved on to the next big thing to obsess over.
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Closing
This was the seventh article of Gotta Meme 'em All, a column whose purpose is to provide in-depth explanations on the origins and spread of various Pokémon memes. If you have any suggestions as to what future articles should feature, as well as any general questions, comments, and criticism, the author can be contacted here.
As always, keep it dank up there!
References
- Pokemon Bank delayed due to "large volume of traffic" to Nintendo Network - Gamespot
- Pokebank Delay - Know Your Meme
- "Pokémon Bank" A Parody of Bad Day - NateWantsToBattle - YouTube
- Pokémon Bank Announcement - Nintendo Support Americas - Accessed via archive.today
- @IsPokeBankOut - Twitter