The world was in a much different place when I wrote the article last month about our store's reopening; I don't think anyone imagined that things would change this much.
I initially thought that we'd postpone our end of April reopening until after Golden Week when the situation started to get worse, but looking at the state of things now, even that seems quite difficult. We discuss what the next step will be every day within our company, but speaking honestly, we've yet to reach a final decision on that. However, I feel it is necessary to give all of our supporters a sort of progress report; so today I would like to explain the current state of TokyoMTG.
The central concept of our reopening this time was to connect people, deepen relationships, and create a great community; this is exactly what the coronavirus pandemic is stopping us all from doing. It's honestly hard to think about reopening our store, with these goals in mind, while the situation continues to get worse. So for that reason, rather than simply constantly delaying our business hours, it's crucial that we rethink the future of TokyoMTG as thoroughly as we possibly can. That isn't to say we are completely abandoning the original concept we've been planning, but simply that it will be a much longer fight than we thought.
No one knows what the future holds, but in regards to our reopening, our hope is that it will be at least before the release of Core Set 2021 (scheduled for July 3rd). Looking at how things are overseas, there's a good chance that we'll see various improvements over the next two months. So, you may be asking, if that's the case, "what should we do during that time?" and we are considering various options. In the meantime, we're focusing on expanding our online products and content that we're offering and making use of this time as best we can. Up until now we've been focusing mainly on the store itself and there were many things that were not being offered online. By putting a priority on things such as an email newsletter, content for beginners, and an online buylist service, we hope that, even though you can't come to the shop, you'll still be able to enjoy Magic online and interact with all of us here at TokyoMTG.
A rather short article this time, but I really just wanted to explain the current situation to everyone first. I'm planning on reporting our progress again next month and better explain the flow of things in the future. Here's to having better news by then!