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Japan Pokémon Center Online to Use Virtual Waiting Room for New Releases on Nov. 12 at 10 AM, Lottery for Entry Order from 9:30 AM

Entry order randomized for users accessing between 9:30 and 9:59 AM, first-come first-served after 10 AM... Site visit capped at about 20 minutes after entry

김태희 기자 · Published Nov 11, 2026, 11:08 KST · 4 min read
Photo: 포켓몬센터 온라인

Japan's Pokémon Center Online will implement a "virtual waiting room" and an entry order lottery for new product sales starting at 10:00 AM on Thursday, Nov. 12. On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Pokémon Center Online posted an announcement titled "Details on Site Usage Restrictions and the Virtual Waiting Room on Thursday, November 12," stating that access to the website will be directed to the waiting room beginning 30 minutes before sales commence. The products offered are various merchandise themed after the evolution of the "Pokémon" franchise. The notice stated that these items are pre-order products, meaning delivery will take longer than usual.

Entire Site Diverted to Waiting Room Starting at 9:30 AM

According to the notice, all users who access the site between 9:30 AM and 9:59 AM on the 12th will be directed to the virtual waiting room, and during this time window, no pages on the site will be viewable. Users who leave the waiting room screen open will automatically enter the lottery for entry order, gaining sequential entry starting at 10:00 AM based on the lottery results. Those who access the site after 10:00 AM will, in case of high traffic, wait in line on a first-come, first-served basis behind the lottery entrants. The waiting room screen will no longer appear once congestion clears.

| Access Time (12th) | Procedure | |---|---| | 9:30 AM–9:59 AM | All users routed to virtual waiting room; all site pages inaccessible. Entry order lottery held for visitors | | 10:00 AM | New product sales open. Sequential entry based on lottery order | | After 10:00 AM (during congestion) | First-come, first-served queue behind lottery entrants | | After congestion clears | Waiting room no longer displayed |

Around 20 Minutes After Entry, 10 Minutes After Order Call

Time limits apply even after passing through the waiting room. The details and conditions set out in the notice are as follows:

| Item | Notice Details | |---|---| | Session duration after entry | Approx. 20 minutes. After this, users must re-queue in the waiting room, and in-progress orders may be invalidated | | Access window after being called | 10 minutes. If missed, the entry turn becomes invalid | | Waiting room page | Closing the page voids entry order. Navigating to other websites is permitted | | Browser settings | Cookies required. Private (incognito) browsing mode may invalidate entry order | | Estimated wait time display | May take approx. 1 minute to appear; displayed times are estimates and may increase or decrease | | Shopping cart | New products cannot be placed in the same cart with other items and must be ordered separately | | Items added to cart before 9:30 AM | May be invalidated. Users are advised to complete checkout beforehand or add items again after 10:00 AM | | Purchase eligibility | Member registration required |

No purchase quantity limit per person was mentioned in this announcement.

Errors Lasted Around 1 Hour 30 Minutes on Nov. 5 Release Day

Pokémon Center Online also posted an announcement on Thursday, Nov. 5, the release day for other new merchandise. According to that notice, site congestion from immediately after the 10:00 AM release until around 11:30 AM caused errors during login, adding items to cart, and order confirmation, for which the operators apologized. In the same notice, the operators stated that items from the "My Pokémon Party" lineup released on the 5th that were sold out as of 6:00 PM would be re-released starting in February 2027 or later, with details to follow. The Nov. 5 notice made no mention of a virtual waiting room or congestion measures, and the Nov. 10 notice did not explicitly tie the waiting room rollout to the errors on the 5th.

Points of Note for Card Buyers and Korean Readers

The products scheduled for sale in the Nov. 10 notice are general merchandise, with no mention of Pokémon Trading Card Game products in the text. Nor were any card products included in the re-release list from the Nov. 5 announcement. However, between 9:30 AM and 9:59 AM on the 12th, viewing all site pages will be blocked regardless of whether users seek the new products, and access after 10:00 AM will still require passing through the waiting room if congested, thereby impacting users looking to order other products during this window.

Direct orders cannot be placed for shipment to South Korea. The shipping guidelines in the Pokémon Center Online user guide specify that the site does not ship overseas and delivers only within Japan.

Sources

This article was written with the help of AI based on public sources. Responsible: 김태희 기자 AI principles →

This article was machine-translated from Korean with AI. Original →

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