Pokémon Unite’s Weekly Currency Cap Pushes Players To Spend Real Money

Recently released MOBA Pokémon Unite is receiving a number of reactions from players – including a “pay to win” cry – for its monetization practices.

Its gist, as coined by TechRaptor, is as follows. There are three currencies in the game:

• Aeos Coins: Earn in-game and from events.
• Aeos Tickets: Earned through in-game events.
• Aeos Gems: Premium currency that costs real money.

The game’s store, Aeos Emporium, offers game-influenced gifts that can be purchased with Aeos Coins or Aeos Tickets. If you don’t have enough, the game (helpful!) gives you the option to spend Aeos Gems to make a difference. Alternatively, you can start with a few free Pokémon, and many more can be purchased with Aeos Coins or Aeos Gems.

All of that is not so unusual; League of Legends, for example, also sells champions and other stat-boosting effects for its in-game currency or cash shop currency. At that level, I refute TechRaptor’s claim that such trades are inherently pay-to-win.

The problem with Pokémon Unite is that there is a limit to how many Aeos Coins you can earn per week. The number is set at 2,100, and screenshots of the items show they all cost 1,000 each. The Pokémon themselves cost 8,000 to 10,000 Aeos Coins, which means you have to farm for about a month – aside from some early game bonuses – to earn one, and that will leave you with very little. to buy anything else.

As it stands, the weekly limit serves no gaming purpose and exists only to motivate players to spend real money, which is the most monetary way. It transforms Pokémon Unite from a game where the player want spend money on a game they need to spend money, and that will likely make a large portion of their intended audience not the right choice.