Pokémon GOrecently announced a new program, Rewards Road, to offer special items to players who make in-game transactions this December. Seasonal events like this one arenothing new inPokémon GO, but this is the first time it’s instituted Rewards Road. Apparently available now to players in Australia and New Zealand,Pokémon GOis expected to roll a similar program out worldwide after this initial testing period - but some players are starting to think it might be more trouble than it’s worth.
According to a Reddit post byCinder_Quill,the Rewards Road program works by giving players points for making qualifying in-game purchases. These points seem to allow them to travel along a tiered rewards system, not unlike a battle pass: the more points you accrue, the better your reward. The only difference is that you don’t earn Rewards Road points by actually playing the game - you earn them by spending cold, hard cash.
Some players, likePosterityR, sat down to do the math. In the screenshots above, the maximum tier of Rewards Road requires the player to save up 3,000 points. This particular player heard that an item called an Eggspedition Ticket was one such qualifying purchase, and that each one cost $5 (AUD or USD is unclear) and rewarded 30 points. If all that is true, thena player might have to spend a total of $500 onPokémon GOin the month of December in order to obtaineverything in Rewards Road.
High Cost, Low Return
Many players balked at the estimated cost of completing the Rewards Road event, with some pointing to a worrying trend of increasing monetization inPokémon GO. Players liketheholysunsaid it best, simply expressing disbelief at the possibility of a player actually spending hundreds of dollars per month on what’s ostensibly a free-to-play game.
Others, likevsmack, pointed out thatrampant microtransactions could have the opposite of their intended effect, by causing players to actually spend less time and money onPokémon GO. In most cases, even completionists will realize that Rewards Road isn’t worth the cost pretty early on, and will give up on buying Eggspedition Tickets. In time, they’ll discover that they don’t have to participate in every single event, and FOMO will dissipate before long.
The quality of the rewards offered was also subject to widespread criticism. Many of the included items are available elsewhere in the game at far less (if any) monetary cost, andsome of them, like stickers, are functionally useless cosmeticsthat hardly justify their own cost.
Our Take: Too Much Monetization Is Never Good
Nothing Kills A Game Quicker
If the rumors are true, thenRewards Road is a pretty poor excuse for a seasonal eventthat demands too much of its players. $500 is too much to spend on any single game, let alone one that’s normally free-to-play. There’s some value in rewarding players for spending money on a game, but this doesn’t seem to be the right way to do it. Something more like the traditional points system you get for making purchases at your local grocery store, that might grant you discounts at certain milestones (and doesn’t refresh progress monthly) makes much more sense.
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Whether Rewards Road will actually get players to spend more of their hard-earned money remains to be seen. What is clear is that players have every right to be skeptical ofPokémon GO’s latest promotional event.
Sources:Cinder_Quill/Reddit,PosterityR/Reddit,theholysun/Reddit,vsmack/Reddit
Pokémon GO
Created by Niantic, Pokémon GO is an augmented reality RPG where players can wander around catching Pokémon as they pass by various landmarks in real life. Players can engage in a traditional Pokémon experience via battles with other trainers, catching Pokémon to breed new ones, and even trade them with other trainers they come across.
