Nintendo president acknowledges Pokémon TCG scalping crisis, hints at ID verification and tighter marketplace controls

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa addressed the Pokémon Trading Card Game scalping problem directly at the company's recent AGM, telling shareholders that Nintendo is aware of the reselling crisis and will take action. It's a rare public acknowledgment from the top of a company that has largely stayed quiet while the secondary market for Pokémon cards spiraled out of control.

Furukawa outlined a few concrete directions: tighter cooperation with online marketplace platforms, expanded made-to-order sales, and — notably — the possibility of requiring government-issued ID for online card draws in Japan, where that practice already exists in some capacity. The comments came in response to a shareholder question about bulk-buying and scalping, and whether players could enjoy the game with any "peace of mind." Furukawa stopped short of announcing specific policies, but the framing suggests The Pokémon Company is being pushed toward stronger verification and purchase-limit systems.

The Pokémon TCG has been in a sustained supply crisis for years. Demand exploded around 2020 and never really cooled — high-profile sets routinely sell out within minutes at retail, and resellers flip packs and boxes at massive markups on secondary markets. The Pokémon Company has responded by dramatically ramping up print runs, reportedly producing billions of cards, but that alone hasn't fixed the problem: scalpers buy in bulk fast enough to keep shelves empty and prices inflated for casual players and collectors.

Polygon notes that Furukawa's statement still places the responsibility for fixing the situation on The Pokémon Company rather than Nintendo directly, which may limit how quickly or aggressively changes actually roll out. Whether ID requirements or marketplace crackdowns will meaningfully dent scalping remains to be seen, but the fact that Nintendo's president is talking about it publicly at all is a shift from the silence that frustrated fans for years.