The Pokémon Company has responded to the alleged theft of hundreds of Fusion Strike Pokémon cards, seemingly assuring fans the crime is unlikely to affect the pull rates of booster packs. “We can confirm that Sword & Shield booster packs and products were shipped to retail as intended”, The Pokémon Company tells Wargamer in a statement from April 19. “We have no indication that the integrity of the products were impacted by any confirmed or unconfirmed theft”, it adds.
On April 15, a photo of hundreds of rare Pokémon cards from the Fusion Strike Pokémon TCG expansion was shared from a private Facebook group to a Pokémon TCG Reddit group. It claims these cards were stolen from The Pokémon Company’s production line and offered for sale to a local games store, Trading Card World.
Its co-founder Scott Emer later told Polygon the LGS flagged the suspicious haul. The Pokémon Company was apparently already aware of the theft and had found the perpetrator – and with Trading Card World’s cooperation, it was able to reclaim the missing cards.
While things seem to have been put to rights, it was unclear how the initial event may have affected the pull rates of Sword & Shield cards from booster packs. If these cards were taken directly from the production line, would that impact the number of rares in packs sent to retail? The Pokémon Company’s statement seems to confirm this isn’t the case.
As for further details, The Pokémon Company itself is keeping a tight lid on goings-on. “We take the protection of our IP and associated products very seriously”, it says in Wednesday’s statement. “This matter remains under investigation and we cannot comment on details at this time.”
The Pokémon Company does add it will “continue to significantly invest in both the production and security of our TCG business”. “We value the faith our fans put in us and our products, and these investments are intended to help us continue to maintain their trust.”