Pokemon Unite accused of being pay to win

Pokemon Unite hit the Nintendo Switch’s Eshop earlier this week, bringing MOBA to the world of Pokemon in The Pokemon Company’s latest attempt and sticking a Pokemon skin on whatever the latest game trend is, I wonder when Pokemon: Battle Royale will be released?

MOBA’s have been a very popular style of game for many years, with titles such as League Of Legends and DOTA 2 being among the most popular games in the world today.

When it comes to free to play games, like Pokemon Unite, monetization is something that needs to be handled carefully, with players generally disliking pay to win mechanics, with other popular games such as Fortnite opting for purely cosmetic items to make money from their titles.

Unfortunately, it seems that The Pokemon Company didn’t get the memo as Pokemon Unite has been accused of being a pay to win game.

Pokemon Unite Is Pay To Win?

Like many other MOBA’s, Pokemon Unite is entirely free to play, making it accessible to everyone. On the Nintendo Switch, as well as other consoles, free to play games don’t require an online subscription, meaning that anyone with a console and internet connection will be able to play. Pokemon Unite is also scheduled to be released on iOS and Android mobile devices in September.

In a post on the Nintendo Switch sub-Reddit, a mobile game developer has called out The Pokemon Company for its monetization practices when it comes to the brand new MOBA title.

Pokemon Unite utilizes five different monetization methods, whereas most MOBAs tend to use just two, according to the poster.

These monetization methods are;

• Cosmetics
• Battle Pass
• Gacha Pull Increases
• Character purchases
• Gameplay boosting items

Most free to play games use at least some of these methods. Games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends use cosmetics and a Battle Pass for monetization, which don’t give any advantage in the competitive games.

Games such as Genshin Impact utilize character purchases and Gacha pull increases, giving players the ability to either outright purchase some characters, or increase the odds of receiving certain characters. But, it is worth noting that despite being online, it doesn’t have any PVPcompetitive elements and is instead a PVE story-based RPG style game.

Pokemon Unite utilizes all four of those listed in other examples, as well as gameplay boosting items, which “increase your damage percentage, your movement speed, your healing output and received, passive healing tics and more.”

This means that a match can come down to who has the deepest pockets, not necessarily who is the better player/team.

READ MORE: Pokemon Masters EX Summer Superstars returns!

But, All Is Not Lost

For those who don’t want to forgo their rent to purchase their favourite Pokemon in the game, everything in the game is unlockable through natural playtime, including the pay to win elements. The problem is, doing so is painfully slow.

u/Not_Nathan_Drake explained how this works saying,

“The main issue here is that after the welcome campaign is done, the unlock process is glacial. You will spend months unlocking 1-2 characters at a time, as the feed of currency is very low, and even further, the feed of hard currency is non-existent. I have played 15 games so far and received 0 gems for any part of the experience, and enough soft currency to buy one character.

Yes, I have unlocked a few characters through the Welcome and Launch campaign, but these are temporary acquisition tools to get you hooked, and not part of the game’s standard progression.”

This has become a standard practice in many games, not just MOBA titles. Mobile games such as Clash of Clans allow you to unlock pretty much everything in the game without spending a penny. But, this process will be incredibly slow to help encourage you to take your wallet out of your pocket and max out your credit card.

While not new to the genre, this is a tactic we have yet to see from The Pokemon Company, which is good because their games are targeted towards a young audience.

Despite the fact a large part of Pokemon’s players are adults, the game and franchise are aimed at children, so it does seem incredibly predatory to push these monetization practices on children. I’m sure we’ve all read plenty of horror stories of small children spending thousands of dollars on mobile games, such as a six-year-old child spending $16,000 on Sega’s Sonic Forces game on his iPad.

How This Will Affect The Game

As the Reddit poster mentioned, the start of the game is incredibly fun, allowing players to unlock multiple characters to get them hooked. Then, once that is done it is hand over your rent money or be at a huge disadvantage in every match you play.

While some players will undoubtedly hand over some cash to get ahead, many players will simply turn off the game.

Pokemon Unite has the potential to be a hugely successful title, especially as it is much more identifiable than other MOBA titles, but there is only so long you can be frustrated at a game before you give up.

It is possible that The Pokemon Company will u-turn the pay to win mechanics if players tune out in droves, but only time will tell whether this practice