Pokémon go subscription

Pokemon GO PoGo Discussion
#1

Since a Pokémon go subscription has been datamined by Pokeminers, I think it’s safe to say we will be getting some type of subscription service in the near future this year.

Curious to hear are other players excited for a subscription or see it as more of a negative? What do you guys expect might be included with a subscription? What features would make you most likely to subscribe? If you see it as a negative, what are the cons of a subscription?

I think a Pokémon go subscription can be great for the game as long as it’s balanced and does not give players subscribed an huge unfair advantage over others who don’t subscribe.

What I would personally like to see in a subscription service

  • additional infinity egg incubator
  • daily remote pass
  • ability to delete eggs
  • reduced stardust trading
  • additional special trades per day
  • discount on boxes
  • permanent long distance trading/ no max distance
  • Access to all paid Pokémon go events going forward
  • tm frustration anytime
  • last one might be crossing the line on giving unfair advantage, ability to tm legacy moves anytime.
#2

The last two would most definitely give anyone a huge unfair advantage, but I would definitely purchase a subscription if all the rest were included. Actually hoping most of those are. But if you could TM any new Shadow that gets released as soon as you have one you immediately have the edge if its meta relevant.

Lets take something without a Shadow variant for example. Say Giovanni returns today and for any odd reason Niantic doesn’t give us the ability to TM Frustration, and he’s got Shadow Groudon as a reward. Wow, now that’d be broken. But wait! If you want to use your new Shadow Groudon against Heatran you have to buy it a second move for 120k dust and 120 Groudon candies because it’s stuck with frustration… Ouch. Now just to power it up to a useable level… Double ouch. But not the people who bought a subscription! They’re using theirs that day, putting those same resources they would’ve used on a second move to power it up. Now during that Heatran raid you simply can’t do as much damage because your Shadow Groundon is levels below thiers. You get less balls as a result, and it flees…

Sorry I know that’s a long winded and a bit of an overdramatic example but that definitely isn’t a far-off possibility given Niantic’s reputation. Ability to TM legacy moves any time would completely devaluate ETMs so I doubt they’ll ever go for that lol.

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#3

I saw that article (or a similar one) too and I wasn’t surprised. My only limited experience with anything vaguely similar was when I used to play Boom Beach and the subscription netted you X gold/coins/diamonds/whatever per month. With this, I’d likely go for it, equally if you got every paid event it would be worthwhile.

I think anything that allows a feature someone else can’t have would be more damaging than positive. Currently, money can buy you more raid passes, incubators, star pieces etc, but it still doesn’t take out the inherent investment in terms of time, or remove the “special” or “elite” from their various events or moves.

I can buy a million raid passes, yes I’ll have more candy/dust than you and i have a better statistical probability of getting shiny/hundo etc, but I still only have the same pokemon. For example, I’ve got 3 shiny Kyogre (because I prioritised them in lucky trades) and because i think they’re great I’ve got 2 at L40 and 1 at L35. I still had to work for the candy and RC to power them up. If Origin Pulse pulse comes out and I’m a ‘subscriber’ I instantly have 3 Origin Pulse Shiny kyogre, which doesn’t sit right with me and in truth, actually makes me enjoy the game less because I don’t have the excitement of going out and hunting the new ones, or using one of my rare ETM’s.

So in short, I think and indeed would be happy with it being discount on the shop in the form of a guaranteed income of coins per month, plus free access to the events.

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#4

I see it more as a negative rather than a positive.

And reading your list, I’d actually be annoyed if some of these became part of a “Subscription” - the idea of having to pay to delete eggs, for example… yeargh. That’s the kind of thing that would drive me AWAY from paying for a Subscription.

But I’ll wait and see exactly what is going to be offered before I form a strong opinion.

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#5

Your make a great point on the legacy moves. I was being greedy with that wish and actually now would not want that to be part of the subscription even though there was like a less than 1% chance of it being implemented. Players could just sign up once a year and cancel after tm’ ing the best moves.

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#6

Great example, didn’t think about it that deep. It would be a extremely unfair advantage and would definitely make players mad, likely driving some away who don’t sign up for the subscription.

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#7

I think instead of those last 2 points a small stardust and xp multiplier (both applicable for catches only) would be a sensible idea. Say x1.2 or so for the entire duration of the subscription. Basically like a permanent weather boost for catches which is also applicable to xp.

Even though I am free-to-play I think such a subscription would be good as it may help in reducing the number of paid events as Niantic will then have a new source of income

Edit: since I mentioned weather boost, a permanent IV floor(which can be toggled on or off) which is same as weather boosted catches(4/4/4) would also not be game breaking if put in the subscription

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#8

My guess is the subscription is for future paid events. I’m basing that on the Kanto Tour event giving you the Jan and Feb Community Day tickets for free if purchased by a certain date. If the subscription gives you access to all paid events for however long, I will not purchase the subscription if Niantic does not release crystal clear specifics of those events. I’m not going to blindly pay $$$ to end up with 12 months of Mr. Rime events.

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#9

A lot of my in game friends on my friend list have the Mr. Rime pose. So I’m having a tough time seeing Niantic including too many free quests as part of a subscription when people would just pay for any event.

I see a subscription having the feel of this past go-fest. That means better spawns, little bonuses like rare candy in gifts for a limited time. Also I’d guess that the game would be easier with better results for subscribers. An example would how during go-fest, everyone who bought a ticket for go-fest quickly got their Giovanni quickly because they had a boosted rate for balloons with easier battles against rocket executives. And the Shadow Mewtwo they caught had the IV floor of a raid boss, not a wild catch. I could also see a passive bonus like extra XP or dust for catches.

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#10

One of my local group bought the Rime ticket and we laughed at him a lot. I hope not too many people did buy it as I think it was niantic testing to see how far they could push us and set a baseline for how many players would buy into an event no matter how expensive the ticket or how rubbish the reward.

The GoFest Mewtwo (and the birds) had a higher floor because it was a research reward in the questline rather than the shadow battle reward (persian) having an artificially high floor, so that particular one would be more difficult. I think the game would be pretty rubbish if it was all as easy as GoFest so I’m hoping you’re wrong. Although I suppose that would save me a tenner a month so maybe not all bad if you’re right.

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#11

I am not keen on paying extra for things, when most of them should have been QoL updates a long time ago.

It’s not like we don’t already fund them for this kind of development.

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#12

I agree, even people who don’t spend a penny still pay for it because the various app permissions will mean somebody somewhere is getting data, so niantic get paid behind the scenes. So yes, in an ideal world, there would be no charges and all basic game events/functions would be standard.

I think this has always been coming and the reason I don’t play many online, whether phone or computer, games is that many of them need you to pay to stand even a chance of competing - often one of the first things that hits you in the face in many tutorials is “buy this starter pack for £XXXX” and then a subscription option. Boom Beach was slower, but not unplayable for free players and that’s why it was the only game I made it more than a few days past tutorial stage in the page decade or so. In that, for all its faults (of which there are many), I think PoGo has still managed to make it accessible and competitive for free to play players.

Given it’s into its fifth year, I’m surprised it hasn’t come earlier and I think looking at niantic’s trajectory and track record over the past 18-22 months it’s inevitable, so I suppose the best outcome for all concerned, especially at a time when much of the world is:

  1. Umemployed or earning significantly less
  2. Stuck inside, or at least restricted
  3. In need of distraction/fun/social engagement during the most stressful time globally arguably since 1945

that niantic makes any subscription service affordable for those who want it and not biased against those who don’t want/can’t afford it.

The second, less preferable but still not disastrous, outcome would be that it was the equivalent of the Rime ticket, where it’s just so overpriced and under-rewarded that none but the most Moby Dick (although arguably if you bought the Rime ticket you’re more of an Ahab) of players will buy it and it won’t create an imbalance.

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#14

If the subscription is for events, this is why I would want Niantic to be crystal clear on what I’m getting for my money. With the Mr. Rime event, you could value the Pokemon at $0 and still get a good deal. The rewards you got for completing the Research (incense, rare candy, ultra balls, etc.) were worth more than the cost of the ticket. So if you are a player who buys items, the event was worth it. But the Research rewards weren’t made public until the event started. That won’t fly with me if I purchase a subscription.

I’m only really entertaining the idea of purchasing a subscription because of the state of the world right now (COVID). If I were going to spend money on entertainment I would rather spend my money on movies every month than some Pokemon GO events.

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#15

I agree with you on the clarity point, although I can’t see it improving seeing as niantic pick events out of a hat and also forget about what needs to happen when - I still think the wooper-rocket event was a last minute “Shit we done messed up with frustration before the annual elite move event”.

Personally, I still didn’t rate the Rime event as good value even for the items. (8k dust 3 RC, 3 Raid passes, 1 poffin, 2 glacial lures, 3 super inclubators, 3 star pieces as I’ve just read them) but that’s me and you only spent your money so if you think it was a good deal, I’m pleased for you - doubtless you’d think some of my purchases were poor value.

My ballpark for a reasonable subscription would be about £10/month, at that mark they’re obliged to make it something worthwhile, without pricing it beyond the ‘standard’ pay-to-players like me. The ball is firmly in niantic’s court at this point and they can’t keep hitting us with more unreasonable paid content without beginning to alienate players.

I still think a subscription will be purely a coins per month thing, they know we’ll mostly all still buy the event tickets, so why write the cost into a subscription? I reckon you’d be talking £20/month, which is too much for most players to commit monthly. It’d be too high to make it worthwhile for them otherwise and they’d have to have at least some event each month - how quickly could that get stale alongside all of the other free events, research days, themes, seasons, CD’s, GoFest…and so on and so forth… .

Unless…the “event” was the CD mini-event? That way it doesn’t overprice the subscription or eat into their big money ticketed events.

I could continue to speculate about this indefinitely, which is one of my bad habits. It will bring whatever it brings at whatever the cost may be and I, along with the rest of is, will doubtless debate it some more before buying or not buying it. I remember when times were simple and you went to town, bought a game you’d saved up for and that was it, you played it until you were bored of it. I’m also showing my age now.

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#16

I’m going to play the advocate of the devil here and say that although your example is a great one, the true “great” players wouldn’t see it like that.

My argument being that most of the"great" players already have like 1000+ candies for any Legendary and have like millions of dust that they can burn like they wish, and you talk about 1 Pokémon a month at best (and how long has it been that we have seen Giovanni?). For the trully “great” players 120K dust and 120 candies wouldn’t make that much difference.

For the FTP players that would mean a huge difference, but they already loose out to those that pay for the game. Doing 7 raids a week versus 50 or more is a big difference, having only 1 incubator versus having several is a big difference, being able to play (some) paid events versus not is a big difference,… to me all those differnces are far more impactfull to the game then having perhaps one Pokémon a month having a higher level then your Pokémon.

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#17

Well the true “great” players wouldn’t be the ones without the subscription either. The example wasn’t about the level or mon, but about the advantage the subscription would give to TM frustration. You’re right that the subscription really wouldn’t affect these players too positively, but it would still be giving those same players just that much more of an advantage than players without, namely new for F2P players such as myself. As you’ve said the “great” players are already an arm and a leg ahead by paying, all I was saying is they don’t need anything as broken as a feature like that. Regardless Niantic would never go for it since they can make you stockpile charge TMs for an eventual Rocket event which takes bag space, which players interested will buy more of for them just in case.

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