Nintendo and The Pokémon Company appear to have made a severe miscalculation about the impact their collaboration would have Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum and everything ended in disaster.
The Van Gogh Museum ended up being the object of the unexpected visit of hordes of fans who destroyed the entire order of the place, in the desire to obtain a limited card with a Pikachu that looked like it was painted by the famous artist.
But in the end everything got out of control in practically every possible aspect, which has resulted not only in a bad experience, but in a public relations crisis where the people at Nintendo had to come out and apologize for everything that happened.
Leaving for history one of the most curious cases where it seems that the Japanese company has not dimensioned the magnitude of popularity of what would most likely be its most profitable franchise.
The not so positive side is that this situation has also triggered some bitter pills for Pokémon fans, due to the consequences of this type of projects that have not been carried out in the best way.
Why Nintendo had to apologize for its collaboration Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum
It turns out that for this collaboration project, The Pokémon Company decided to release a card of very limited availability where we see a Pikachu representing Vincent Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Gray Felt Hat.
To obtain it you had to go to the museum of said artists, but this triggered the fas to storm the place, causing genuine annoyance among normal visitors and the site staff.
Through their official social networks The people at Nintendo have published an official statement to share their reaction to the incident that occurred at the Van Gogh Museum, offering an apology in passing:
We apologize to all the fans eagerly awaiting our Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum release today.
Due to overwhelming demand, all our products from this collection have sold out. We understand this is disappointing to many who were looking to our official email and social media… pic.twitter.com/KM3ZCO1EQZ
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) September 29, 2023
“We apologize to all the fans who were eagerly awaiting the launch of our Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum today.
Due to overwhelming demand, all of our products in this collection have been sold out. We understand this is disappointing for many of you who were looking to our official email and social media channels for guidance on how and when to purchase. We are actively working to offer more “Pikachu with Gray Fedora” promotional cards to fans who purchase at the Pokémon Center in the future. Details will be released later.
Thank you for your understanding and support.”
As if that were not enough, each of the pieces generated by the Pokémon Center x Van Gogh Museum collaboration has acquired enormously high prices on the resale market.
So many fans of the franchise are not exactly happy about what happened.