The Pokémon Center's Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl Shipping Delay

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Alternatively, why I haven't written an article about the release of Pokémon Shining Pearl/Pokémon Brilliant Diamond yet.

You must already know that Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl released on the Nintendo Switch on November 19, 2021. I've been discussing it on KoopaTV in optimistic terms because the Sinnoh region and Generation 4 are in my top three things I'm a total fanboy of. It turns out I haven't played a mainline Pokémon RPG since Pokémon Moon, which released five years ago. I've skipped everything else out of apathy (Pokémon Ultra Moon) or active dislike and distaste for its game design (Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! and Pokémon Shield).

So a game that goes back to the good times before GAME FREAK decided to stop being interested in good game design practices (with some... possibly non-minor unfaithful tweaks) is the type of Pokémon game I should be happy with. And so I pre-ordered Pokémon Shining Pearl from the official store ran by The Pokémon Company International, the Pokémon Center:

You'll receive a bonus plush key chain of a randomly selected starter with your pre-order!
(While supplies last.)

Generation 4 is a rare generation where I'd be quite happy receiving any one of those random plush keychains (another being Generation 3) because I like the designs for Turtwig, Chimchar, AND Piplup. Obviously, Turtwig is my most favourite, but I'd like to have any of these. So the store expects the game to be shipped for arrival on the day of release... and to this day, I still don't have the game. What happened? Well, over the weekend, there wasn't any communication for what was going on. Then on Monday, the Pokémon Center Support site published this article and put it as a support-wide announcement bar, explaining that they are aware of a shipping delay and there are shipping constraints that will result in a new expected delivery date of November 26. I was one of the first few people to have looked at the article because I was... constantly refreshing their support throughout Monday. Perhaps the problem has to do with the greater shipping problems affecting other industries as well. (We can get into the politics of that in the comments if you want?) I dunno. But they are promising to expedite the orders.

Then today, I got an email finally saying my package has shipped and I should expect it to arrive November 26. I'm left wondering if I'll get the plush keychain after all or if they'll consider it a job well done just to get the game. Because if it was a matter of the latter, I could've gotten it by shopping elsewhere. Or via digital download but... I'd rather not do that. Still, it's annoying to get it after Thanksgiving and not before.

I'm also wondering if I should get that life-sized Lucario from the Pokémon Center. That's a pre-order, too. I dunno with these pre-orders... I already got this Delibird Holiday Express Moomoo Milk & Cookies Tank Car Figure and that shipped without any issue whatsoever. You can guess why I bought it. The quality is great, I gotta say.


If you wanted to keep track, the top three things Ludwig is a fanboy of are, in no particular order, the Ace Attorney series, the two Tellius Fire Emblem games, and Generation 4 (Sinnoh) of the Pokémon franchise. He's quite biased about them, but you would be too if you experienced them. Ludwig is eagerly anticipating to re-experience Sinnoh, and he will publish an article when he actually receives the game... and/or the plush keychain.


Ludwig finally got the game and wrote about his start with it.