New Amazon Prime rewards for Pokemon Go leave a lot to be desired

ByAdam B Hours

Last Updated on: 27th June 2022, 03:48 pm

The new Amazon Prime gaming rewards for Pokemon Go have arrived, and… they’re not great. They’re pretty bad, actually. Niantic, is there a positive thing for your game you can’t mess up?

Amazon Prime Gaming rewards come to Pokemon Go

You’re reading that right, Amazon has finally done something to partner up with Pokemon Go. Over 5 years after its initial release. Talk about staying up to date with trends there, Amazon.

This means that anyone with an active Amazon Prime subscription can now use the Prime Gaming section to get a redeem code for some free Pokemon Go items; isn’t that nice, some decent free stuff in Pokemon Go?

Well, it might be. Unfortunately, the items given by the codes so far are nothing to write home about, and arguably pretty bad, even by the usual standards of Pokemon Go or Amazon Prime.

Pokemon Go how to redeem promo codes
Credit: IGN, the Pokemon Company

READ MORE: How to redeem a promo code in Pokemon Go

So, what do the first codes Amazon Prime Gaming has got for us get you, you might be wondering?

Well, fair warning, don’t expect much.

The first redeem code included 15 Poke balls, 5 Max Revives and a Star Piece. The new code that has made an appearance since hasn’t improved things much, with another 15 Poke balls, 5 Max Revives… and a single Lucky Egg.

A Pokeball in Pokemon Origins
Credit: Bulbapedia

Now, Niantic have blown chances at good PR and actively damaged their own reputation with their playerbase lately a couple of times, but Amazon Prime Gaming Rewards coming to Pokemon Go? That should have been a pretty free win for the game, surely?

Instead, these rewards are… well they’re incredibly boring for one. You get 21 total items, 15 of which are useless to anyone who’s using gifts. The 5 Max revives are practical, but not very interesting. Yes, you will use them, at some stage.

Though again, if you’re already using gifts – and you really should be – then you’ll have a stockpile of these ready to go anyway, and by the time you reach the 5 you got from Amazon Prime you’ll have long forgotten about redeeming a code for them.

This leaves the one reward that has changed so far, a valuable consumable item. These are available in the store 100 Poke Coins or less on any given day; so even for a free-to-play player, these are at most 2 days of effort to earn if you really need one. Making this entire bundle not a whole lot to write home about, really.

Of course, from Niantic’s point-of-view, 20 Pokeballs is 100 store coins, despite most players over level 30 having swapped them out for Great balls via friend gifts on a fairly permanent basis. Plus 6 Max revives run you 180 Pokecoins in the store, so 5 has got to be worth about 150 store coins. That brings the bundle value to about 350 coins worth of loot for free, right?

Unfortunately, no one who’s earning their own coins via gameplay is likely to be buying either of those items in the store, because those prices are legitimately awful – leaving those players questioning what the value in this bundle is supposed to be.