Pokémon Company "Investigating" Registration Improvements After London Pop-Up's Online Issues

Update [Thu 23rd Jan 2025, 2:30pm]:

Well, that was speedy. The Pokémon Company has announced that reservations for the upcoming pop-up Pokémon Center in London are now fully booked, and it's looking into ways to improve the process in the future.

If you were unlucky enough to grace the pop-up's booking site yesterday, then it's likely that you will have seen some of the problems on display. Just minutes after the reservations went live, the site was met with crashes, lengthy load times and a whole host of other issues which meant huge waves of fans were unable to book a slot.

In the meantime, other fans found ways to bypass the website's security and nab tickets that way, leading to a further influx of site visits when the method was shared online.

To put it lightly, the community wasn't impressed. In response to the debacle, The Pokémon Company published a statement stating that "some fans will be disappointed that they could not reserve a slot", but pledging that it is "investigating ways to improve our online registration processes".

As many have pointed out in response to the above tweet, TPC has struggled with online registrations for years, particularly when it comes to the pop-up Pokémon Centers. We have seen crashes and wait times like this every year in recent memory, so the changes are going to have to be pretty drastic if we actually see some improvements in 2026 and beyond.

Until then, congratulations to all those who managed to grab a slot and commiserations to those who were let down by the site — rest assured, you were not alone.

Original Story: With the Pokémon European International Championships right around the corner, reservations for London's pop-up Pokémon Center are now live.

The store will be up and running throughout the event at ExCel London from 20th-23rd February 2025 , and, much like previous years, you need to book a slot if you want to shop.

Reservations are now available through the Pokémon EUIC website, where you can now bagsy a slot from 10am GMT on 20th Feb until 5pm GMT on 23rd Feb. As ever, these slots are likely to fill up fast (heck, the site already seems to be struggling with the influx of users), so be sure to get in there sooner rather than later if you have a limited window to grab some merch.

We have already had a peek at some of the exclusive merch that will be appearing in the pop-up store this year, but you can expect to see much more when the event officially opens its doors next month.

While 2024 saw some improvement in the Pokémon Center's organisation, it's worth bearing in mind that the booking system has been far from seamless in the past — remember when attendees were advised to arrive an hour before their reserved slot back in 2022? — so be prepared for some serious queues if you are lucky enough to attend.

Have you managed to book yourself a Pokémon Center slot? Let us know in the comments.