The Pokemon Center is facing an outage, likely due to fans attempting to order the newest set.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Destined Rivals was fully revealed today, and pre-orders for the highly anticipated set are now live. However, fans have struggled to access the website since pre-orders began.
Currently, as verified by VGC, visiting the website either places users into a queue or shows off a message noting that the Pokemon Center website is unavailable. This is likely due to a huge amount of traffic hitting the site at once.
Customers are reporting that even when they get access to the website, the products are not showing up in listings, or they are being kicked back to the queue screen, causing mass confusion online.
Destined Rivals will be the next major Pokemon Card set released after Journey Together, which is released this Friday.
“Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals will see the return of the popular Trainer’s Pokémon mechanic, but with a twist, introducing the infamous Team Rocket — a villainous organization in the Pokémon world — into the mix,” a description from The Pokemon Company reads.
Keeping with the Team Rocket theme, the Elite Trainer Box for the set will feature Giovanni and Mewtwo.
Pokémon TCG players will have the opportunity to use the Destined Rivals cards before launch by attending one of the many Prerelease tournaments held as part of the Play! Pokémon program, taking place beginning May 17, 2025, at participating independent retailers.
The Pokémon Company has also confirmed that it will release a line of new Team Rocket merchandise alongside the release of Pokémon: The Glory of Team Rocket, the Japanese set that will form one-half of Destined Rivals.
So far, clothing, a shoulder bag, an attaché case, and more have been confirmed. It’s unknown if these products will come to the online Pokémon Center stores outside of Japan.
