The new Pokémon Center in Taipei is making the West jealous

Announced on Sept. 1, the new Taipei Pokémon Center is garnering plenty of attention prior to its grand opening in December. New photos, released on Sept. 26, give us a great impression of something that a lot of countries have been missing out on since 2005. 

Taipei, Taiwan will join Singapore as a location for Pokémon fans to gather and purchase merchandise straight from the source. Our first look highlights a largely green hue store featuring dedicated item sections, such as the ever-popular trading card game. Its crowning showstopper of a statue is a physical representation of the store’s mascots—Dragonite and Pikachu—located in the Shinkong Mitsukoshi Mall lobby. 

All this excitement is somewhat lost on Westerners who continue to ask the question of when they will start to get this level of love from The Pokémon Company. As I previously alluded to, such a store did exist in New York some 20 years ago. It closed to make way for a Nintendo World shop before being rebranded again in 2016 to what it is known as today, Nintendo New York.

Fan-demand has been strong over all these years in spite of limited in-person offerings. Zekrom916, seemingly unaware of the previous existence of a New York store, was particularly disappointed with the quality of stock in its replacement. “The Pokémon section in the Nintendo NYC store is sad,” they remarked with an air of wist on Twitter. 

Even more extraordinary, perhaps, is that online services still haven’t caught up to many places in the world. Although areas such as the United States or the United Kingdom can order online from Pokémon Centers around the world, others such as Australia don’t have this luxury. “Pokémon Center in Australia when?” said popular Pokémon UNITE creator Kelosaurus. “Or at least shipping to it.”

Some hope can be offered in these trying times. Two stores outside of Japan opening within five years of each other might suggest a road map for more on the way. Pop-up stores have certainly proved their worth with two located in London and Paris experiencing stock shortages thanks to their popularity in 2019 and 2014 respectively.

Perhaps we should look to the franchise’s 30th birthday for news on what could come next.