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Pokemon's Global Link Service Is Shutting Down, But You Can Get A Free Pokemon Out Of It

The online battling hub for 3DS Pokemon games is ending next February.

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After nine years, the Pokemon Global Link is shutting down, The Pokemon Company has announced. Since the release of Pokemon Black and White on the original DS, the website has served as an online battling hub for the mainline Pokemon series, allowing players to join online competitions and view their rankings, but the latest entries, Pokemon Sword and Shield, have moved away from the service, making it no longer necessary.

In a statement on the Pokemon Global Link website, The Pokemon Company revealed the service will cease on February 24, 2020. After that point, players "will no longer be able to use any gameplay features that require a connection to the PGL" in either Pokemon Sun and Moon or Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. However, regular online features such as battling and trading will still be available in those titles.

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Now Playing: The Most Disturbing Pokemon In The Pokedex

Before the Pokemon Global Link shuts down, The Pokemon Company is giving away one final free Pokemon to Global Link users. From now until February 24, you can claim a free Fennel's Munna in a Gen 7 3DS game. This Munna is modeled after the one owned by Fennel, the Dream World researcher from Pokemon Black and White.

To receive the Pokemon, log into the Pokemon Global Link and a personal notification about the gift will appear on the homepage. Click on the link within the notification to generate a download code. After that, you'll need to go into Mystery Gift in your 3DS game of choice (either Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, or Ultra Moon) and go through the following steps:

  • Select Receive Gift
  • Select Get with Code/Password
  • Follow prompts to connect online
  • Input download code
  • Open your save file
  • Retrieve the Pokemon from the deliveryman in any Pokemon Center

While the Pokemon Global Link may be shutting down, its functionality still lives on in Sword and Shield's Battle Stadium, which lets players compete in ranked online competitions. The upcoming Pokemon Home service will feature some PGL functionality as well. That is slated to launch sometime in early 2020 and will also allow you to transfer Pokemon from 3DS to Switch.

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Naraku666

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Naraku666

hey all i just reginstered my pokemon sun for the munna and was told i couldnt remdeem it because i had to have done it before novemeber 4th which is bs not once have they stated a date you had to have your game registered just emailed support and gonna see what they say

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twztid13

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twztid13

What about X/Y & omega ruby/Alpha Sapphire or whatever they're called? I could've sworn those had the Pokemon Global Link in them. Am i mistaken, or was that iteration already canceled?

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blazingsonic

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blazingsonic

I'm sad to see if go, I really wish they would make free DLC where characters from past games both popular and obscure would appear in Sword and Shield, Imagine characters using Dynamax.

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twztid13

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Edited By twztid13

@blazingsonic: funny, i try to up vote this comment, but it says "sorry it's not working right now." I can upvote the other comment no problem. This new comment system seems geared towards making sure certain comments don't get recognition, or not allowing them to regardless of the reason behind it. This has happened on every single comment section i have tried to up vote a comment on since the comment section "refresh". It would tell me it's not working, or CSF token not valid, or something to that effect, then it works fine on every other comment (as I'd try on as many as possible just to see once I realized it was only "not working" on certain comments). Originally, i thought maybe the user had deleted the comment, but now that it's happened on every comment section i care to upvote a comment on, i doubt that's the case. Let's see if it lets me reply to this comment. If so, it's not deleted.

I can't believe the horrid decision making at CBS interactive, consistently going with either the same bad web developer, or hiring different, but equally bad, web developers. The writers, etc (they're NOT journalists) suffer for this because auto play on vids & horrible comments sections are easy ways to make ppl use adblock, or avoid the site altogether, which means less views of their content overall, or less revenue. Both are bad for business, & i bet they get blamed when views aren't as expected on their reviews, stories, etc, when things like bad webmasters contribute just as much to those things as a badly written or researched story.

Edit: another example that wasn't fixed from last version of comments is when u edit, all ampersands are changed to &;amp or something like that, so now they'll be peppered throughout since I'm not scouring thru to find & replace them this time. The one i just used will be fine probably, as it seems to occur upon the click of "edit" when it grabs the saved text from the database to display it to the end user in order to allow the editing. We'll see, tho.

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TJDMHEM

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Edited By TJDMHEM

I’ll miss the pgl but at least Pokemon sword and shield have online and I’m looking forward to getting the new app

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