Pokemon London
Image: Nintendo Life

Update (4th Nov, 12:00 BST): As feared, The Pokémon Company has now confirmed that the exclusive London City Pikachu Plush will sell out before the store's closure. If you're planning a trip to the store next week, you'll likely be out of luck.

"Due to overwhelming popularity, this week will be the final week that London City Pikachu Plush will be in stock at Pokemon Center London. Restocking will continue daily, but we will most likely completely sell out on Sunday 10th November."

Interestingly, the store has revealed that it'll be adding more products to the shop over the coming week "including additional licensee products", presumably as a way to provide something for those who can't grab the new goodies.

Original Article (29th Oct, 13:15 BST): The pop-up Pokémon Center currently operating in London is a glorious little haven for fans of the series, offering them a collection of delightful products and a rare chance to enjoy an official Nintendo-themed outing in the country. Sadly, though, the demand for the store appears to have been terribly miscalculated, and things are going from bad to worse.

On its very first day, we shared the news that the store had to close entry queues nine hours early, with anyone showing up after 1pm being turned away. We thought that the opening weekend would be the busiest and that things would calm down, but since then, we've seen the store's opening times be narrowed to cope with stock limits and legal visitor number limits, product purchasing be limited to just six items per person - and then down to five per person, and queue times consistently remaining at around the six-hour mark.

The Pokémon Company has even felt the need to open a dedicated Twitter account to update visitors who are travelling or queueing each day. Following the account shows that multiple products sell out within an hour of the store being open on any particular day, and a message shared yesterday reveals that there are concerns that products will sell out entirely before the shop's intended closure on 15th November.

"Our team are working hard to restock daily. However, as interest in the store has been unprecedented, some products may sell out before the shop's closure on Friday 15th November."

Considering the UK and Europe's lack of any official Pokémon or Nintendo retail store, we can't quite believe that the demand wasn't expected, and for anyone living several hours outside of London, a trip feels incredibly impractical. Some fans have travelled across the country to be turned away, despite the store still being 'open' for several more hours.

We've seen a number of fans asking for a permanent store on social media after missing out, and while we can't know for certain that this would be financially viable in the view of The Pokémon Company, we'd hope that either a full-time store or even just an official online store is offered in the future.

Have you tried to make your way to the Pokémon Center London? Did you manage to wait it out and get what you wanted, or were you left disappointed? Tell us below.