The Pokémon Bank app will launch on the 3DS eShop on December 27, Nintendo of America announced today on their official Twitter account.

According to the app’s official FAQ, there will be an annual fee of $4.99, meant to help maintain and manage the servers, to use the app. If you sign up before January 31, 2014, however, you’ll be given a free 30-day voucher.

The Pokémon Bank will provide players with 100 different boxes online to store Pokémon in, giving them the potential to store 3,000 different Pokémon on Nintendo’s servers, which can then be accessed at anytime through the Pokémon X/Y software.

If you sign up for the Pokémon Bank, you’ll also get the Pokémon Transporter companion app for free, which allows you to move Pokémon from Pokémon Black and White and Black and White 2 into the bank. Those Pokémon can be transferred into Pokémon X and Y, linking the two most recent generations of Pokémon together. This is only a one-way move, however, so you can’t bring Pokémon in X and Y to Black and White.

For more info on the Pokémon Bank, including a way to theoretically bring Pokémon from as far back as Ruby and Sapphire to X and Y, check out the Pokémon FAQ page here.

Pokémon X and Y launches exclusively for Nintendo 3DS worldwide on October 12. EGM’s full review will go live next week, on Monday, October 7.