Pokemon Unite Charging The Same Price As A Game For A Ninetales Skin Is Ridiculous
What would you prefer: Two copies of The Witcher 3 or a mediocre Ninetales skin in Pokemon Unite? One option is cheaper than the other.
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Discussion about monetisation in Pokemon Unite has been pretty polarising over the last couple of months. While some people reckon it’s pay-to-win, others – myself included – reckon the microtransaction footprint is frustrating but not necessarily detrimental to people who want to play without investing money, which has become particularly true ever since the item enhancer overhaul a few weeks ago. At the time, I wrote a piece specifically talking about how things were looking up for Unite. What a naive little boy I was.
This weekend, Pokemon Unite developer Timi Studios unveiled an all-new skin for Alolan Ninetales. “That looks pretty cool,” I thought to myself. I generally don’t really care for cosmetics in games, but even my attention is occasionally grabbed by decent designs. Ninetales is also a great Pokemon, which obviously helps.
“Oh, hang on,” I muttered. “It costs… over 2,000 Aeos gems. Wut?”
For those unacquainted with how microtransactions function in Unite, there are several distinct types of in-game currency, all of which have their own individual uses. Aeos coins and Aeos tickets are earned by simply playing the game, but Aeos gems can only be obtained by exchanging real money for them. The Alolan Ninetales skin, when converted into actual cash we earn from working real-life jobs, clocks in at around $40.
Forty. Dollars. Do you know how many great indies you could get for that price? The Witcher 3 is like 20 quid on Switch right now. The Sacred Alolan Ninetales skin costs you literally two Witcher 3s. I think it’s fair to say that this, reader, is a complete and utter joke. Why opt for 100 hours with Geralt of Rivia (x2) when you can buy a virtual scarf thing for a Pokemon in a MOBA? Clearly the Sacred Alolan Ninetales skin is excellent value for money. I mean, it’s only two thirds of Breath of the Wild! Bargain.
Realistically, anti-consumer initiatives like this are extremely bad for a game’s longevity. It’s fairly likely that this is indirectly related to the introduction of super item enhancers – now that Unite is fairer about leveling items, it’s no surprise that Timi is attempting to bolster sales elsewhere. Cosmetics are completely optional purchases and will never instigate any kind of typical pay-to-win debate – microtransactions of this type can obviously still be predatory, but compared to actual pay-to-win mechanics, they’re often given more of a free pass (ironic).
But again: $40! That is an inordinate amount of money to spend on fake clothes for a Pokemon on your telly. I’d understand a tenner – I wouldn’t spend it personally, but it’s a lot more reasonable. 40 quid though? Absurd Absol! Ludicrous Lucario! Wild, Wild Wigglytuff!
Let’s not forget that this is emphatically a Pokemon game, too. At the time of writing, over 30 million people have downloaded it on mobile – on top of another 9 million who installed it on Switch prior to that. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess there are probably quite a lot of kids playing Unite. Fancy new Ninetales skin? No worries, mam and dad’s card is linked to the eShop. Yes, the Switch offers parental controls, and yes, the onus is generally on parents themselves to enforce that said controls function properly – that doesn’t make it any less shady. The mix of currencies is already enough to confuse kids – having it so they can drop $40 on a silly little skin in a matter of seconds without fully understanding the real-life cost and consequence of that is pretty damn nefarious.
Pokemon Unite is a great game and I’ve really been enjoying my time with it over the last few months. This, though? This is ridiculous and deserves to be called out. Like, maybe just… don’t? Forty. Dollars. Rubbish.
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