Pokémon Go is not pay-to-win—but the concerns fans of the mobile game have been raising about the increased amount of content being locked behind paid event tickets are more than valid.
If you have been keeping track of Niantic’s most recent style of running events, there is one aspect that has kept fans on edge. That is the increased inclusion of ticketed content for events that, in previous years, wouldn’t have featured such restrictions.
Most of the ticketed content is inoffensive, offering more Timed Research to complete for additional rewards for anyone who wants to partake. However, that has slowly started to change as more and more content shuffles behind the infamous “ticketed paywall” and leaves casual or free-to-play users on the outs.
This model can be best exemplified in the ongoing Mythical Wishes season of content that began at the start of December.
Just three events into the next three-month cycle and Niantic has already pushed a ticketed piece of content out with each activation. This means, to get the most out of the Heading to Hoenn Mega Raid Day, Mythic Blade, and Winter Holiday Part One events, Pokémon players would need to spend real-world money.
For the Heading to Hoenn Mega Raid Day and Winter Holiday Part One events, this was par for Niantic’s recent course as the $5 ticket for each would only give additional rewards such as more Raid Passes, XP, and helpful items such as Incubators and Incense. This was all content that doesn’t limit what players can achieve without paying but does reward those who are willing to shell out a bit of cash.
The action becomes much less defendable when you look at the Mythic Blade event—something that is almost entirely themed around the Mythical Pokémon Keldeo, which you could only encounter if you bought the $7.99 Special Research story.
That ticket was also the only way to get a ton of other bonuses, boosted encounters with certain rare Pokémon, and an exclusive avatar item.
Despite what some fans might think, this specific frequency of including ticketed content in so many events back-to-back is new and completely worth criticizing. It was previously saved for large-scale events or smaller activations like the $1 Community Day research that has been a staple of those events for some time now, though in general, it has been on the rise in Pokémon Go for years.
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Locking a Pokémon that has not been readily available in the game before a specific event behind a paywall shuts out a group of players from encountering it for the first time and does give certain players an advantage in terms of a potential competitive Pokémon or Pokédex completion.
“Haven’t opened the game since the Keldeo paid ticket was announced,” one player said. “Feeling better and better about moving away from PoGo. No reason to keep playing a game F2P if the company constantly moves in the opposite direction to make it harder to enjoy.”
With the backlash coming from the community, Niantic might take note and pull back on potential plans to keep implementing ticketed content for every event. But this approach is slowly starting to push even hardcore fans away as content that would have been available to all is now being treated as a way to monetize events of all sizes.
And if nothing does change, it seems like a good portion of the Pokémon player base is in agreement: “I hope this isn’t the future for this game. Cause if it is I’m out.”
