Last month, New York Pokémon card store The Poké Court was the focus of media attention following a frightening armed burglary that involved its staff and customers being held at gunpoint.
The incident prompted widespread shock and sympathy for the fledgling outlet, which lost $100,000 worth of stock in minutes. But now, the business has said the famously-litigious Nintendo has been in touch — not to offer aid, however, but to share “concerns” over its name and logo.
The Poké Court is now being forced to rebrand, with its storefront, social accounts and online site all being rebranded to “The Trainer Court” over the coming days. The previous design featured a stylized Pokéball logo that is now being replaced by a simple “C” colored in green.
In a statement posted to Instagram, the newly-retitled Trainer Court thanked fans for support “amidst the robbery and beyond” but said it was now having to change its name and logo due to a complaint from Nintendo.
“The short story is Nintendo reached out to us with concerns about our name and logo,” The Trainer Court wrote. “This means we’re evolving! Same team, same ridiculous hit rate, and soon, even greater things coming your way.”
The post has already gained plenty of further support for the outlet, with more than 2000 likes at the time of writing and a comment praising the business from Sarah Natochenny, the voice actress who previously provided the voice of Ash Ketchum in Pokémon’s animated TV series.
Numerous stores selling Pokémon cards have been hit by robberies over the past year, including locations in Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle. In December, $100,000 worth of stock was swiped from a store in Burbank — an incident that Californian cops suspected was linked to “half a dozen” similar thefts within the southern half of the state. Separately, IGN has reported on numerous other examples that have also occured nationwide over the past 12 months.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
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