Latest news with #PokemonTradingCardGame
Engadget
12-06-2025
- Business
- Engadget
Google Cloud outages: Spotify, Discord, Snapchat and more were down for hours
Google Cloud experienced outages today that led to disruptions for many online services. Reports of issues for Google products and others began around 2 PM ET. The company was able to restore function to its own apps, but several other businesses have continued to experience problems for some users. In an update at 4:16PM ET, Google said, "We have identified the root cause and applied appropriate mitigations. Our infrastructure has recovered in all regions except us-central1. Google Cloud products that rely on the affected infrastructure are seeing recovery in multiple locations. Our engineers are aware of the customers still experiencing issues on us-central1 and multi-region/us and are actively working on full recovery. We do not have an ETA for full recovery." Screenshot from DownDetector at about 3:25PM ET Spotify, Discord, Snapchat, Etsy, UPS and OpenAI all experienced a high volume of reports on DownDetector, with some informing users of disruptions. Even the Pokemon Trading Card Game and Pokemon Go weren't spared issues. Snapchat acknowledged the ongoing issues on its support page. OpenAI has posted that users may have trouble logging in due to "issues affecting multiple external internet providers." AWS also experienced a higher-than-usual volume of reports on DownDetector during the outage, but Amazon clarified in a statement to Engadget that it has no broad service issues and noted that its AWS Health Dashboard is a better indicator of its current status than DownDetector. Almost all services have now returned to normal operation. By 5PM ET, Spotify's main page loaded for our editors and reports of outages on DownDetector had fallen back to close to their baseline. Other platforms like Snapchat and Discord also seemed to be functioning normally for us. Google said at the time that its products were coming back online across multiple regions and that it expected the recovery to be complete "in less than an hour." However, as of 7:13PM ET, the company noted that several Google Cloud components were still experiencing "residual impact." Google Cloud Dataflow, Vertex AI Online Prediction and Personalized Service Health are all still somewhat affected, and the company has not provided a timeline for when everything will be back to normal.
Engadget
12-06-2025
- Business
- Engadget
Google Cloud outages: Spotify, Discord, Snapchat and more partially down
Google Cloud experienced outages today that led to disruptions for many online services. Reports of issues for Google products and others began around 11AM PT/2 PM ET. The company was able to restore function to its own apps, but several other businesses have continued to experience problems for some users. In an update at 4:16PM ET, Google said, "We have identified the root cause and applied appropriate mitigations. Our infrastructure has recovered in all regions except us-central1. Google Cloud products that rely on the affected infrastructure are seeing recovery in multiple locations. Our engineers are aware of the customers still experiencing issues on us-central1 and multi-region/us and are actively working on full recovery. We do not have an ETA for full recovery." Screenshot from DownDetector at about 3:25PM ET Spotify, Discord, Amazon Web Services, Snapchat, Etsy, UPS and OpenAI all informed users of disruptions or experienced a high volume of reports on DownDetector. Even the Pokemon Trading Card Game and Pokemon Go weren't spared issues. Snapchat acknowledged the ongoing issues on its support page. OpenAI has also posted that users may have trouble logging in due to "issues affecting multiple external internet providers." This story is developing.
Indianapolis Star
14-05-2025
- Indianapolis Star
Gen Con heist plea: Man to pay Wizards of the Coast $27,141 and write an apology letter
One of the two New York men who were charged for their alleged role in a Gen Con heist at the Indiana Convention Center & Lucas Oil Stadium in 2023 was sentenced. Thomas Dunbar, 40, and Andrew Giaume, 41, were both charged with felony theft after Indianapolis Metropolitan Police traced $300,000 in stolen gaming cards to them on Aug. 2, 2023, ahead of Gen Con opening. According to police, Dunbar and Giaume used a pallet jack to remove the cards while vendors were setting up. Grainy images released by police during the search for the men showed a pallet with packaging resembling those of 'Magic: The Gathering,' the Pokemon Trading Card Game and the Disney Lorcana trading card game, all with hyped releases in 2023, and all among exhibitors at Gen Con. Dunbar took a plea to dismiss the felony charge and was sentenced to a lower-level theft charge. His two-year jail time was suspended to probation, and he must pay restitution. 'Gen Con is pleased to see this offender brought to justice and applauds (convention center) security, IMPD, and the Marion County Prosecutor for their diligent work in concluding this case," David Hoppe, President of Gen Con, said in a statement to IndyStar. Gen Con heist: Charges filed against New York men in theft of gaming cards Dunbar was ordered to pay restitution to Alan Hochman, the president of Pastimes Games, and $27,141 to Wizards of the Coast. Recovered items also must be returned to the Wizards of the Coast. Dunbar also has to complete 40 hours of community service in Marion County and the state of New York. He was sentenced to write an apology letter to the Gen Con Community. After completing a year of probation, he will receive an alternative misdemeanor sentencing. He agreed to stay away from the Indiana Convention Center for two years, and the state didn't object to probation being transferred to New York, where he lives. Giaume has a trial set for July 2025. Related: Indy police trace $300K in stolen gaming cards from Gen Con to New York City Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
CBC
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Gotta buy 'em all: Pokemon card game is under threat from scalpers, fans say
Looking to buy Pokemon cards? Good luck. "It's rough right now," said Jake Wagman, a 23-year-old Pokemon card collector in Toronto. "I blinked and product is impossible to find. It's unavailable." Wagman used to be able to walk into a big box store or hobby shop and buy a handful of packs of his favourite cards with ease. But over the past few months, thanks to a boom in interest, the Pokemon Trading Card Game hobby has been plagued by scalpers emptying store shelves, then asking for double and triple the price on the resale market like on eBay. "All of a sudden people are just like seeing Pokemon, like the Pokemon brand, and they're buying a product and they don't even know what they're buying because they think it'll be valuable," said Wagman. "It's to make like, you know, 50 bucks here or 20 bucks there. And it's frankly ruining it for the people that actually want to collect and want to play." Collectors and fans worry that if it goes on for much longer, this could damage the hobby, especially for the children that make up the next generation of fans. Pokemon cards, again? The Pokemon Trading Card Game (or Pokemon TCG) first released in North America in 1998, as part of the megapopular Japanese franchise that also includes video games, television shows and action figures. In it, players take on the role of trainers who catch, trade and train animal-like monsters called Pokemon to duel with other trainers' Pokemon. The original release's most coveted card is easily the now-iconic Charizard, which now sells for thousands of dollars on the resale market. Back in '98, getting pack of 11 cards was as easy as paying $4 for one. And they were readily available on store shelves. Since then, Pokemon has completely taken off. The Pokemon Company boasts retail sales in the billions through its media and merchandise. Its total retail sales for the 2023 fiscal year reached $10.8 billion US, or more than $15 billion Cdn. "The Pokemon Company constantly comes out with so many different things that are a lot of fun," said Charlene Sutherland, an investment associate in Toronto. "I think Pokemon is just a classic. I think there's a lot of us who either grew up with the shows or are collectors, or have played the video games … and just love the way it's been done." So what's happening now? The recent shortage of Pokemon TCG cards kicked off with a new set called Surging Sparks which launched in November. A particular card featuring fan-favourite creature Pikachu sells for over $1,000 Cdn on places such as eBay, which had people buying up as many packs as they could from hobby shops and big box stores. The hype was cranked up even further with the following set, Prismatic Evolutions in January. Some of the cards from this set have sold for over $5,000 Cdn on eBay. "It was pretty wild, something I've never seen before really," said Sebastian Bilodeau, assistant store manager at Exor Games in Charlottetown. He says when Prismatic Evolutions first went on sale, they had a lineup of 50 to 60 people around the building. "Keep in mind, this is like January. Like, people are waiting outside for two, three hours in the freezing cold," said Bilodeau. In the last few months, it's become near-impossible to find any sets of Pokemon cards, and not just from the newest sets. Some Canadian stores have even reported break-ins, with the thieves going straight for the Pokemon card aisle. WATCH | The value of Pokemon cards is up and these store owners say that's leading to break-ins: The value of Pokemon cards is up and these store owners say that's leading to break-ins 1 month ago Duration 3:03 The trading cards have been around since the 1990s but have seen a boost in popularity in recent years. Their value can range from a few cents to hundreds of dollars and, in some rare cases, a lot more. It's not the first time Pokemon cards have seen a big boom. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people who collected cards as a kid got back into the hobby, and The Pokemon Company struggled to keep up with supply. But the recent surge of scalping has made this time around different. Damaging the hobby Then there were the Costco fights. Viral videos from the U.S. showed people pushing and shoving to get their hands on the product when the big-box store chain had an early release and a discounted price on a box of packs. Scalping is far from new, of course, when it comes to coveted items like concert tickets or limited edition sneakers. But it's new to Pokemon. And Sutherland says it's a bad look for the community. "Seeing videos of people who are literally getting into fist fights at Costco over Pokemon cards also has just brought a completely negative connotation to the community," she said. "When you see videos of grown adults going and fighting over Pokemon cards, knowing that it's also ruining this experience for parents and kids who are trying to get into, it just puts a bad taste." Some stores are making efforts to prevent brawls from breaking out. Bilodeau says Exor Games is reserving a large percentage of its product for in-store purchases, and capping how much an individual can buy. But Jordan Hennessy says that's not the case everywhere. He collects the cards, and runs a trading card stall at a flea market in Kelowna, B.C.. He says some stores have started charging over the retail standard for packs, with the reasoning that a scalper is just going to buy it and sell it for that higher price anyway. There's hope that the Pokemon Company will pick up on the demand and print more of these popular sets. But until then, the best chance people have at getting their favourite cards is finding out when their local store gets new stock in or paying a scalper's asking price. Hennessy is concerned that if children can't get the cards, it could hurt the Pokemon community long-term. "It's the seven, eight-year-old to 15-, 16-year-old that will always keep it relevant and keep Pokemon printing stuff, keep Pokemon making TV shows and video games," said Hennessy.
