So Pokemon Bank is coming, and with it, comes an annual fee. Now, a lot of people are upset by this, because they have to pay a subscription for something they perceive has always been available to them. But here's the thing; it actually hasn't.

Each generation, you are always given the standard, set number of boxes in your game. If you ever wanted to expand that, you needed to own several other items in which to do so.

In Generations 1 and 2, you needed their respective versions of Pokemon Stadium, as well as a Nintendo 64 on top of your Gameboy.

In Generation 3, you need Pokemon Box, which was not widely available, and a Gamecube.

In Generation 4, you needed My Pokemon Ranch and a Wii.

Now, by all appearances, the annual fee for Pokemon Bank will be 5 dollars. Let's do some math.

Just going by the costs of Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2, Box, and My Pokemon Ranch on their, it would effectively take you 10 years to match the original retail price of the first three games while paying for Pokemon Bank, and two years to match the price of My Pokemon Ranch.

And that's without taking into account the devices neccessary to run those. Now, many people who owned Pokemon tended to have those systems anyway, but nonetheless, it remains important to know that to use Bank, all you require are an existing internet connection and a 3DS: one of which is an essential part of modern day life, and the 2nd you're going to need if you plan on playing Pokemon anyway.