Pokémon GO’s Eggs Absolutely Are Loot Boxes & It’s Clearly Gambling

Pokémon GO eggs lack needed transparency on what could be inside, and players will need to spend real money to hatch more than one at a time.

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Category : Pokemon

There have been many issues with mobile games using in-app purchases in recent years, and unfortunately, Pokémon GO is included in the list. Due to its egg mechanics and a lack of transparency, it’s easy to become increasingly more frustrated with developer Niantic. Players have been encouraged to hatch eggs to get better Pokémon, but have not been offered long-term solutions for hatching more eggs at once, or better ways to select which of the eggs to focus on hatching. This frustration was brought to a boiling point when Niantic released an announcement involving a new mechanic that will allow players to see what could potentially be inside the eggs, but not what the odds could be.

Because Pokémon GO has a massive amount of players, including a large number of younger fans, the inclusion of vague mechanics like egg hatching can be more frustrating than the catch mechanics for Legendary Raids. Younger players may not have the ability to walk as far each day to hatch eggs, or have the money to spend to purchase additional Incubators. Hatching eggs also offers a number of advantages. Besides the likelihood of rare or Shiny Pokémon being increased, some Pokémon can only be obtained through hatching eggs. The mechanic also rewards players with stardust and a random amount of Pokémon Candies (between 5-50) for the Pokémon species they receive. For those with multiple Incubators who can hatch many eggs at a time this can be a huge boost, but for players with one Incubator, egg hatching becomes a tedious grind.

The new Pokémon GO update from Niantic is currently being tested by random players in a Beta period. Species have always been determined by the distance required to hatch the eggs, and these Pokémon can change depending on what events are currently active in Pokémon GO. However, this new feature only allows players to see what might be inside, but not the odds of each species available, what stats could be possible, or if there is even a small chance the egg may contain a Shiny Pokémon. The update doesn’t address the Incubator issue either, which has turned Pokémon GO eggs into an unpleasant grind for many players. Recently, Kotaku released an article stating Pokémon GO eggs are not loot boxes, despite the evidence clearly showing otherwise.

What Are Loot Boxes?

While they come in many shapes, names, and at different costs, loot boxes of all kinds are still somewhat similar. Loot boxes are special purchases containing one or more random, possibly rare items that often either cannot be obtained through regular gameplay or require a large amount of time to access while playing. Loot boxes are often obtained by paying real money (or some form of in-game currency which is itself bought with real money) and offer only the chance to obtain one of these rare items. A good example of this frustrating gimmick can be seen in the mobile game Last Day On Earth: Survival. A player can purchase one of many different crates, ranging from a basic survival box to a Legendary crate.

Each crate has a visible list of potential items that could be inside. A player will purchase the crates using their coins and receive one random item on the list. Unfortunately, the list usually includes one useless item, many mediocre items, and one or two good ones. The odds aren’t clear, but the chances of getting a poor item despite paying for the box are high, and all the items break or disappear when used, making the money spent on them a complete waste. Sadly, many of these items are used to get an edge while playing the game, or are required to progress forward in the story in a timely fashion, punishing players who don’t spend the money.

How Pokémon GO Eggs Are Loot Boxes

Unfortunately, Pokémon GO eggs are clearly nothing more than loot boxes when looked at closely. Eggs are obtained for free when a player spins PokéStops or opens gifts. It isn’t possible to know exactly what a player may get from an egg, or even a probability of what might be inside, forcing players to take their best guess when putting it inside their single unbreakable Incubator. Eggs have a high probability of hatching common Pokémon, but also have a small chance of hatching something rare or Shiny, and these small odds are still better than catching Pokémon in the wild through regular gameplay.

Because a player can only hatch one Pokémon at a time unless they spend money on more Incubators, hatching and getting decent Pokémon can be a brutal grind. To add to the frustration, players can obtain a good number of Incubators through Field Research objective rewards early in the game, allowing them to get used to having a large number of eggs hatching at once, but these become almost non-existent at later levels. Giving players a lot of limited in-game abilities early on and then slowly taking them away is a tactic used in many games to encourage players to either grind to get back to what they’re used to or pay money.

If a Pokémon GO player decides to purchase more Incubators to speed up the process of hatching their eggs, the price is steep. 100 Pokécoins cost .99 USD. A regular Incubator costs 150 Poké Coins, or 1.50 USD, and a Super Incubator, which “helps eggs hatch quickly” according to the Pokémon store description, costs 200 Poké Coins, or 2 USD. Each Incubator only lasts for three uses, so a player is essentially paying .50-.75 USD per egg to have a small chance to hatch a Pokémon better than what they could catch on their own. There is no way to purchase more unbreakable Incubators, so the only choice is to spend money on something that will break for three completely random dice rolls that could all be terrible.

The definition of gambling, according to Oxford Languages, is to “play games of chance for money,” and that is exactly what is being encouraged with Pokémon GO’s egg mechanics. Instead of releasing an update showing the “potential” Pokémon in each box, Niantic should offer players the ability to purchase more unbreakable Incubators or show the chance percentage of what could hatch in each egg. It should also include Incubators as rewards in later Field Research tasks more frequently, so players unable to purchase in-game items with real money can still enjoy Pokémon GO along with everyone else, instead of being left behind in favor of those who can pay to play.

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