Summary
- The Pokemon Company has issued a statement about Destined Rivals pre-orders.
- The statement is more a description of how the system works rather than an apology or a commitment to improvement.
- The statement was issued after customers claimed their Destined Rivals pre-orders were canceled.
Pre-orders for the Pokemon TCG‘s next set, Destined Rivals went live this week, and it was chaos. Pokemon has issued a statement in the wake of what happened, although it appears to be more of a sugar-coated way of customers being told to deal with it than an apology for what happened.
“Pokemon Center implements a virtual queue for certain products to help provide a more seamless purchasing process during periods of increased site traffic,” The Pokemon Company explained in a statement (thanks, VGC). “We will continue to explore measures that help create the best possible experience for Pokemon Center customers.”
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It feels a little like we have been here before. A statement that neither apologizes nor commits to a plan of any description, let alone one that might actually help, likely won’t make collectors and TCG players feel any better about what happened to the Destined Rivals pre-orders. It won’t fill them with confidence about the next expansion’s drop either.
The Pokemon Company Has Issued A Statement Following Destined Rivals Pre-Orders Being Snapped Up
It Comes After Customers Have Been Claiming Their Pre-Orders Are Being Canceled
The part of the statement that reads The Pokemon Company uses technology “that helps get products into the hands of fans first and foremost” probably doesn’t have Pokemon TCG fans convinced either. Not only because many of them emerged from this week’s pre-order chaos empty-handed, but because scalpers clearly got away with quite a bit of stock since it has already started to appear for inflated prices on resale sites.
Not only that, but before Pokemon’s statement, some customers who thought they were successful claim they are now being told otherwise. The cancelations appear to apply to the lucky few who managed to bag a Destined Rivals elite trainer box. If you did manage to buy one, you can check if the order is still in place by going to the Pokemon Center and entering your order number. That should tell you whether your order has been canceled or not.
If orders that went through really are being canceled after the fact, that’s further evidence that the queuing system The Pokemon Company is touting in its statement simply doesn’t work. That people are making it to the front of the queue and can buy stock that has already sold out.
This is an ongoing issue that keeps getting worse with every expansion’s release despite Pokemon claiming it is trying to make it better. Already in 2025, we’ve seen the situation escalate from Prismatic Evolutions to Journey Together and now Destined Rivals. Something needs to be done to truly make the pre-order process smoother and to stop scalpers from buying up all the stock. What that solution is, and whether The Pokemon Company really is pursuing it, remains unclear.
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