In their Nintendo Direct broadcast this morning, Tsunekazu Ishihara – CEO and President of The Pokémon Company – re-confirmed the re-release of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow versions for the Nintendo 3Ds and 2Ds on the Nintendo eShop, starting tomorrow in North America, for $9.99 each.

The re-release is something we’ve known about for some time now – what makes this exciting is that the virtual console versions will be compatible with the Pokémon Bank. Players can transfer Pokémon from Red, Blue, and Yellow to the Bank, and then to both Pokémon X & Y and Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, along with Pokémon Sun & Moon when they release later this year.

The Pokémon Bank is a cloud-based service that, for an annual charge of $4.99, allows users to deposit their Pokémon online and transfer them between compatible entries in the franchise.

February 27th is the 20-year anniversary of the Pokémon franchise.