Pokemon Sword and Shield Won't Connect to Pokemon Go

Pokemon Sword and Shield won't have direct connectivity to Pokemon Go. Eurogamer confirmed that players won't be able to directly transfer Pokemon from Pokemon Go to Pokemon Sword and Shield in a recent interview with Game Freak director Junichi Masuda and Pokemon Sword and Shield director Shigeru Ohmori. Instead, players will eventually be able to transfer Pokemon from Pokemon Go to the upcoming Pokemon Home app and then transfer Pokemon from the app to Pokemon Sword and Shield. No release date has been announced for Pokemon Home, but it is expected to come out in early 2020.

Last year, the Pokemon Company surprised fans when they added direct connectivity between the Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee! games and Pokemon Go. Not only could players directly send Pokemon from Pokemon Go to the Pokemon: Let's Go games, they actually needed to link the two games in order to obtain the Pokemon Meltan and Melmetal, two new Mythical Pokemon that were added as a unique crossover. Once players transferred a Pokemon into Pokemon: Let's Go, they could unlock a Mystery Box that caused Meltan to appear in Pokemon Go. From there, Meltan could be evolved into Melmetal and eventually transferred.

Technically, the news that Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon Go won't have a direct connection isn't new, as the Pokemon Company released a chart with the announcement of the Pokemon Home app that revealed that the games would both need the Pokemon Home app to transfer Pokemon. The Pokemon Company plans to use the Pokemon Home app as a "hub" where players can permanently store their Pokemon and then transfer them into new games. The app may have other features as well, but none were announced at this time.

There will be one tie between Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon Go - a datamine of a recent Pokemon Go update confirmed that some of the Galarian versions of Pokemon found in Pokemon Sword and Shield will eventually be added to Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Sword and Shield will be released on November 15th.