Latest news with #JoeMerrick
Newsweek
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Become Second Best-Selling Games in the Series
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors Nintendo has just released its latest quarterly financial report, revealing that the latest games in the Pokémon mainline series, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, have risen to the position of second best-selling games in the entire series. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which were released in November 2022, have now sold 26.79 million units, surpassing the previous generation pair of games, which are currently sitting on 26.72 million units sold. The best-selling games in the series remain Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue for the original Game Boy, which have combined sales of over 31 million units. A player gliding through the region of Paldea on the back of the Legendary Pokémon Koraidon in Pokémon Scarlet. A player gliding through the region of Paldea on the back of the Legendary Pokémon Koraidon in Pokémon Scarlet. Nintendo As noted by Serebii webmaster Joe Merrick, Scarlet and Violet overtaking Sword and Shield is also the first time the second generation of games on a single system – in this case the Nintendo Switch – has outsold the first generation released on the same system. It's worth noting that this also the first time a second generation on a console has outsold the first GB Red, Green & Blue: 31.38m Gold & Silver: 23.7m DS Diamond & Pearl: 17.67m Black & White: 15.64m 3DS X & Y: 16.78m Sun & Moon: 16.33m — Joe Merrick (@JoeMerrick) May 8, 2025 Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were first released on the Nintendo Switch in late 2022, where they received equal parts praise and criticism from media and players alike. Players praised the games for their innovative gameplay improvements, including the addition of a full open world for the first time in the series' history, but they were heavily criticised for performance issues, bugs at launch, and poor visual quality. The games subsequently received a number of post-launch patches, which reduced the number of bugs experienced by most players, but the poor performance and visual quality remained the same, even after the release of paid DLC in 2023. Nintendo has announced that Scarlet and Violet will be getting updates following the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 which will allow the games to take advantage of the more powerful hardware, but no further details have been announced about these updates. The milestone comes ahead of the release of a brand-new Pokémon game on both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, Pokémon Legends Z-A, which will take players back to the Kalos region first featured in Pokémon X and Y for the Nintendo 3DS. The new game will take place entirely within the region's major city, Lumiose, and will feature a mix of exploration and real-time battles. Pokémon Legends Z-A will be released on the Switch and Switch 2 in late 2025.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Pokémon Company Yet Again Promises It Will Print More TCG Cards, But...
If you've tried to buy a pack of Pokémon TCG cards in recent times, you'll already know what a shitshow it's all become. As we've been reporting, the last six months has seen the trading card game's explosion in popularity lead to an epidemic of scalping, leaving new cards all but unavailable to the regular players and collectors. Now, but not for the first time, The Pokémon Company has promised it will be addressing these shortages. It's just that their words don't really match reality. In a new statement issued on the eve of the release of the next set Journey Together, and posted to socials by Serebii's Joe Merrick, The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) explains that it's aware of the difficulty people are having buying the cards, but promises that it is 'actively working to print more of the impacted Pokémon TCG products as quickly as possible.' The thing is, that's exactly the same thing they said when we contacted them back in January about the same issue. Here's a quote from the new statement: We're aware that some fans are experiencing difficulties purchasing certain Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) products due to very high demand impacting availability. We understand this inconvenience can be disappointing for fans, and we are actively working to print more of the impacted Pokémon TCG products as quickly as possible and at maximum capacity to acknowledge this. And here's a quote from the statement in January: We're aware that some fans may experience difficulties purchasing certain Pokémon Trading Card Game: Scarlet & Violet—Prismatic Evolutions products at launch due to high demand impacting availability. We understand this inconvenience can be disappointing for fans, and we are actively working to print more of the impacted Pokémon TCG products as quickly as possible and at maximum capacity to acknowledge this. Which, given there has been no noticeable increase in availability of any affected sets in the two months since, makes this repeated promise a little harder to take seriously. It's almost word-for-word the same! Those who've been able to buy a pack of Prismatic Evolutions without paying scalped prices are the very lucky few. The new statement goes on to say that, 'For Pokémon TCG product releases at Pokémon Center, we are committed to providing a smooth purchasing experience and employ technology that helps get products into the hands of fans first and foremost.' As anyone who's tried to use the Pokémon Center on days when new cards are made available for pre-order will tell you, this simply isn't true. The statement continues, 'Currently, Pokémon Center implements a virtual queue for certain products to help provide a more seamless purchasing process during periods of increased site traffic.' But TPCi has to know this isn't working. When pre-orders for May's set, Destined Rivals, went live this week, the site was just broken for hours. Sometimes, if you were lucky, you'd see the 'queue' screen, but in my experience it never resolved to the site, and more often there was simply a message saying the site was down for repairs. To describe this as 'seamless' is quite something. By the time I was able to access the site, everything was of course sold out. In the past, even when the site hasn't gone down, product has been marked as sold out within moments of being added. And limiting purchase numbers does almost nothing against an army of bots that can make multiple purchases to multiple accounts. It just all sucks. Tomorrow, people will line up outside stores in desperate hope of being able to find some Journey Together product, and many will miss out. Scalpers will do all they can to scoop the majority of the cards, and kids and collectors will be disappointed. What we need at this point is not a copypasta of a statement issued two-and-a-half months ago, re-promising the same things that clearly haven't happened. We need The Pokémon Company to get on top of this, to actually start printing and delivering product to retailers (I've spoken to specialist shop owners who say they cannot get answers, let alone cards to sell), and more than anything else, to drop the disingenuous statements and offer a bit more honesty and clarity. We've reached out to TPCi to ask for that, to get some specifics on how much more product it intends to print and how, and what practical plans it has for its websites given things clearly aren't 'seamless.' . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
