PokemonCenter.com Counting Down to Launch July 3, 2014

I have to admit I have been jealous of Japan for quite a while. It is really difficult to find merchandise for Japanese made video games here in the United States. Because of that, merchandise for some of my favorite games from the Land of the Rising Sun like Catherine, Metal Gear Solid or the Silent Hill series can be very hard to come by.

One thing you might know about Japan is it is the home of Pokémon. What you might not know is that Japan has Pokemon Centers located all throughout the country, just like in the games. Unlike the games, where the Centers serve as communal areas for Pokémon Trainers on their Pokémon journey, real-life Pokémon Centers are retail stores where you can find all sorts of exclusive merchandise there, games, movies and other collectibles.

When I first found out about the Pokémon Center stores, I thought they were pretty cool. Some of the content sold in Pokémon Centers have never been made available anywhere else. If you want to hear about how much non-Japanese Pokémon players have missed just in the past few years, I recommend checking out JWittz’s YouTube Channel and watching a video he posted produced by fellow YouTuber TamashiiHiroka.

Well, have I got a big announcement to make today. Continuing with today’s Pokémon news, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have announced the imminent launch of PokemonCenter.com, a one stop website for Pokémon fans in the US to purchase the latest exclusive Pokémon merchandise.

Currently the site is only offering a few items including a Pikachu Plush toy, but there is a countdown clock indicating that the full site should be launching within the next 35 days! Can’t wait to see what they have in store for us.

Pokémon: The Series X/Y Now on iTunes July 3, 2014

Nintendo has announced that fans of the animated Pokémon X/Y series will be able to purchase and download entire episodes from iTunes right now in SD and HD. To celebrate the launch, Apple currently has the first episode of the X/Y season available for download free of charge.

I only caught the first few episodes of this series when it first aired but I have to say it had a great launch that both paid respect to the legacy of the animated series and the story of the newest Pokémon generation games.

You will need an iTunes account to purchase the episode but you can create one quickly with just a valid credit card or iTunes gift card. iTunes content can be played on any PC or Mac with iTunes installed, Apple TV, or iOS compatible device.