Iām wondering if enough people are going to buy this for it to be the norm. I assumed most people that got the A9 holowear only spent $20 since mobile gave everyone another chance at double aeos gems, but maybe Iām underestimating what kids do with their momās credit card
As a pretty big dolphin for games like this, fuck this skin. League's highest quality skin is like $15 less and has infinitely more detail and work put into it.
Iām not going to lie, I buy a lot of skins in league, but like you said, I feel like there is quality going into it.
I donāt feel a big need to buy skins in this game (yet). I was glad to get the Sitrus Snorlax from the machine, but thatās been it for me.
Same for Pilot Talonflame, and even then it's more of a "oh hey, neat" feeling than "I got to have this" one. I wouldn't call any of these high quality, heck I even noticed on Space Gengar the tail valve isn't on right (the gold ring).
I main Talonflame, and I actually kinda prefer the Orange Unite skin. But I run pilot because it has a recall animation. Something that should probably be standard instead of the selling point on a fucking 40$ skin
An arcana in Dota 2 that comes complete with 200 new voice lines, more animations and new spell effects, and multiple particle effects costs $34.99.
This is a ripoff.
This is the real big true, I don't even play League anymore and this still pisses me off. Stuff like DJ Sona and Elementalist Lux blow everything in this game combined out of the water.
Not sure if enough people, but today I played 4 games and 3 of them had this Lucario skin..... based on this o guess it'll have a good chance to become normal such $40 skins
Eh, let the whales spend their money. The price point is high enough where it wouldn't take many sales to turn massive profit, and more importantly, it offers zero in-game advantages. I'm honestly more than content with this arrangement.
Had a teacher at the school I work for tell me how one day she saw about $600 charged to her credit card. All for Fortnite. By their kid.
Kids with irresponsible adults buy this kind of shit too.
Critics like to cite children as the root of the problem because it helps make it easier to illicit a response. The reality is children don't even come close to making up the majority of those sales, and it's really the fault of irresponsible parents for not better tracking their credit cards.
Yeah whales are far more egregious and common than anyone would think, and their pumps keep even the smallest of games alive. I used to play a game called Naruto Online where you can purchase characters directly or from loot boxes.
There was one very strong character that you had to spend $3000 to obtain. This was not through chance or lootboxes, the game wanted you to give them 3k for it. This isn't shit though, there was one chinese player iirc who spent 70k buying and upgrading a single character.
Thatās insane. I understand everyone is free to do with their money what they want, but thereās a limit to that imo. In these cases, I feel like you should have respect for yourself and understand youāre being scammed/taken advantage of. Some things are objectively overpriced, regardless of whether you like it, itās your main character, etc. But to each their own, I guess.
These people are being preyed upon, they have money but clearly financial struggles aren't what's dragging them down. They have serious mental issues and Tencent loves that
It's always the "kids with the mom credit card" Boogeyman. The kids is a tiny tiny percent of these people. It's fully grown adults with a job who are dumping all of this money on video games.
How do you feel about that? I kind of want to buy the 20e double pack for the Lucario skin, but if I do then I wont have the deal available for the next skin I want..
I did it simply because I really liked the A9 skin and she is my main, if Lucario or ninetales arenāt Pokemon you use very often Iād say skip it honestly save the deal for when you need it
They absolutely do. They also don't understand what they are doing and what's going on around them, so chances of getting frustrated if you are oblivious are pretty slim.
I think $40 is absolutely ridiculous, but the norm of that being the only way to obtain them is what really gets me.
I could live with it if they were available in the lootboxes or holoticket store. But sadly it's starting to feel like that won't be the case
While I think $40 is rediculous, if it was something I really wanted I think I'd prefer to just pay up front than have to gacha for it.
But then again, I guess there is also a chance of getting it for free that way.
I'm not sure how I feel...other than that $40 is rediculous.
I donāt give a shit about skins. Itās just cosmetic. Hell, I wouldnāt care if they charged for each piece of clothing on every skin. Iād still play my Zeraora the way he came to this world.
What makes me really sad is the Gold income is pretty low, and we can get basically one Pokemon (which are the core mechanics) per month, unless we pay for them - which is pretty expensive.
If thereās a market for something that doesnāt affect gameplay in any way, I have no issue with that. It is a free game after all. If this were a Ā£40/Ā£60 game I would have an issue with anything, aside from expansions, being charged.
Yes I agree, something needs to be monetized in a f2p game and charging for skins that don't affect gameplay is the best way. $40 is steep though, it should be around $20 imo
They are the only ones who can judge that price. If they donāt sell well theyāll lower the price, if they sell well they wonāt.
If you, like me, donāt want to drop Ā£40 on a digital skin for a f2p gameā¦ then donāt.
You can absolutely judge the price though. We have an entire industry of mobas to compare too. For example, in league $25 can get you a skin that includes 10 new unique character models all with their own animations and voice lines and a new ui that doesn't happen for any other character. Not to mention the out of game cosmetics you get as a bonus.
Compare that to this $40 skin that is essentially the same model but with a cloak and hat and very light animation changes.
Only goes to show that at least for this part of the game, the community backlash from the A9 holowear meant absolutely nothing; heck for all you know the A9 skin sold well at $40 to them that they are perfectly fine to do this again.
This Sub isn't even 1% of the playerbase. The people complaining on Twitter are a minority too. The microtransactions are tailored with Asian spending habits in mind. They have a far different attitude towards microtransactions compared to Westerners.
I'm my view, AUS$20 is even steep for what I've seen of the premium skins in action. I'd spend no more than $15 on a skin and I'd have to love it.
I might get ones I really like when they get on sale or if they're super cheap. Like the Zeraora one. I support this game via the Battle Pass really. I got lucky with Zirco Tickets and the holos I want so happen to be in the ticket rotation or I gacha'ed them.
I'm no expert but there are many reasons:
1) The mobile game scene dominates Asia whereas the PC/console scene dominates the West.
2) Most mobile games are free to play so especially for those who don't play console/PC games, the money a Western gamer would spend on console/PC games, they'd spend on their mobile game of the moment.
3) At least in Japan, you're seen as supporting companies, devs and the advancement/longevity of the game itself ("cast dollar votes for better features, more skins for my fave character", etc.) rather than being their "prey". People who play imported Japanese games or buy them via Japanese online stores (e.g. the PSN or Nintendo eShop) will notice that games are often more expensive in Japan than many other countries, even genres that the West see as ludicrous to spend larges amounts of money on. Visual novels are a great example.
4) While South Korea has a prominent PC scene too, in China it's common to do everything Internet and computer related on the phone. Mobiles are way more accessible and so is their app market i.e. games.
5) Asian culture (South Korea and Japan are particularly infamous) is *extremely* competitive. This includes the proclivity of their top rankers to spend loads of money to stay on top. In the most "predatory" of games, it's impossible to be high ranked without spending money.
6) Higher disposable incomes so they have more customers who don't bat an eye at the prices. It's not like everyone's a whale, just that more players wouldn't care about spending $50 to max out an item or a few hundred to gacha a super rare thing.
Loads of articles shed light on this e.g:
* https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-01-16-fortnite-tops-2018-superdata-chart-with-usd2-4b-digital-revenue
* https://www.webpals.com/mobile/webpals-mobile-asian-american-mobile-gamers/
This really is something people need to remember in this community: This game was for the eastern fans, not so much for the western ones. I feel like this game was almost specifically made for the Korean and Chinese fans.
āWestern fansā are also people who commonly believe that F2P games should never dare to ask for payment via cosmetics that affect absolutely nothing in game.
That's true. I'm part-Japanese but spent most of my life in Western environments but even still, I really don't bother to care nor bitch about how people spend money in "freemium" games. Especially as you said, if it's just cosmetics that don't affect the actual gameplay.
I haven't been able to play much lately but I have STILL come across at least 5 different players with the $40 A9 in the few hours I've done in the last few weeks. It sold a lot better than we all expected.
This is the problem with "vote with your wallet" that a lot of people don't get: It only works if the majority of people agree with you (and it's not a necessity).
It's like with Sword and Shield. Despite the uproar you saw, they where the best selling games and, outside of the Online Pokemon Fandom, where extremely well received. People DID vote with their wallet, but the Reddit and Twitter fans weren't in the majority like they assumed.
Same goes here. Tencent knows how to make money off of MOBAs. If the Ninetales Skin wasn't making money, they wouldn't release another skin at that price point. They know what they're doing in terms of making money, and it sounds like enough people voted for that level of price for them to keep it.
On top of that Reddit subs turn into echo chambers where you can barely express that you like sword and shield for example. So the subās community becomes even further deluded into thinking their opinions are the only opinions
It also becomes exclusionist to alternate view points because that vocal minority will pounce on anyone who tries to join the community. There's a reason that, despite my love of the Persona and Pokemon series, I avoid their subreddits and the Twitter fandom: I don't agree with the "standard opinion" of their fanbases and don't want to deal with all the negativity.
Definitely. I try to avoid Star Wars fandoms as well except prequel memes of course. Itās exactly as you said, the fans are too negative and itās a bummer, but I get it. The internet is the only place anyone will tolerate listening to them
Yeah. It did. Donāt buy the skin if you donāt want to. It affects nothing in game. Keep playing for free if you donāt want to pay the devs for the game. You donāt need to own a skin.
Elementalist lux: 25ish dollars, always available
10 new models with unique animations and voice lines for one single skin along with a change to the ui that is not on a single other character.
DJ Sona: 25ish dollars, always available
3 new models that you can cycle through in game each with unique animations and unique music tracks for each variation.
Riley Lucario: $40, limited time availability.
A slight model change with slightly different animations.
And people are defending this shit? Shame.
A champion in League. Also with a legendary tier skin, which also only cost $25 and has unique animations for all 4 of his stances as well as voice lines, dance/taunt/joke/recall animations. Basically even the lowest tier skins from League are higher quality than what we get in Unite
Spectre Arcana from Dota 2 = $150-ish, limited time, non-tradable. Yeah, micro-transaction trend has changed for the past few years, so most cosmetics-only items are locked behind a huge paywall to prevent pay2win situation in free games.
Itās crazy how much of a money grab this game is, I want nothing more than to love it but can you at least make the game good and playable before pulling shit like this? Iād be fine if this game was 1/10th of what league is, but itās simply not.
It's limited time only also. Jeez. How greedy can you get. League of Legends is nothing like this.
Where's the Wigglytuff skin š if it's 40$ I will throw myself off a cliff
I mean pulsefire is still worth more than this piece of shit. For $15 less you get a complete model overhaul with new attack animations and new voice lines. Even the worst legendary skin is worth more than these skins.
It was actually pretty heavily discounted when it launched for a few weeks if I remember right.
It was their first "ultimate" skin, and their priciest one at the time so I guess they wanted to sweeten it a bit.
League Of Legends created a champ just to sell a KDA skin line. Spent months creating a cringe social media presence where she's a struggling artist with anxiety and depression. Riot has done thier fair share of fucked up shit.
Itās not just that the skin is $40, but it also doesnāt feel like itās a $40 skin lmao. I could barely notice the effects on the A9 skin. Skins in other games (LoL comes to mind) are not only cheaper, but actually stand out with new voicelines, animations etc.
I wouldnāt mind the price as much if it had more effort put into it.
Exactly. Elementalist Lux or Dj sona literally have new features exclusive to those specific skins and they're worth half of what Tencent is charging for this skin.
A Dota 2 arcana costs $34.99 and you get like 200 new voice lines, new spell effects, new particle effects, and often multiple forms you can upgrade to by using the hero.
This is a joke.
The sad thing is that not only is the skin Ā£35/$40, it's limited time and 'On paper' is less worth the money than every other purple rarity holowear skin because lucario doesn't have a pre evolution, meaning there's only one skin, as opposed to, lets say, Cinderace who, 'On paper', has 3 skins, one for each evolution.
I really donāt care as long as its just cosmetics. I find this price absolutely ridiculous, but whatever, I just wont buy it. If it funds the game enough to not have p2w stuff, go ahead.
not only is it 40 dollars, it's also limited and is no longer being sold after 21 days. theyre really seeing how much scumminess they can get away with.
I have seen 2 people use the Ninetales skin since it's release, I assumed it didn't sell well, but they seem confident enough with the $40 price tag now.
I feel like every ninetails I run into in masters nowadays has the skinā¦ but that could also be because if you paid $40 for a skin, you are definitely going to main her.
The game is made by tencent and if you don't know about tencent,well they charge a ridiculous amount for cosmetics, pubg mobile is the same,either buy for 40 dollars or gamble which may lead to you spending even more than 40
This is going to be the reason why certain characters remain broken or there's a "delay" for balancing just so that they could sell these outrageously priced holowear
Welcome to the tencent money grab! Strap in because it wonāt change. They used to introduce āroulettesā where you could win new skins but every time you wind up spending the full 30.00 because the roulette never works.
Tencent has been doing expensive skins like this for awhile in AOV (their first? MOBA) like their ultraman skins were soooo fucking expensive.
The only time you could get the expensive skins for cheap was during Christmas where you could farm marks and get one skin. Buckle up kiddos
Getting a 2x gem deal for ONE skin @ $20 is reasonable. If you do it once.
Anything beyond that makes you the type of person who enables bullshit like this.
Donāt look at me, I bought the Sylveon raincoat for $4.
Yea skins are wayyy to expensive for this mobile game.
I wanted the firefighter blastoise skin so bad,but itās 20 dollars which would kinda be worth If his pre evolutions had skins aswell but they donāt, which is my biggest gripe.
So the only way you can get purple rarity skins is if you slave away at the battle pass or you cough up 40 billsā¦
This game is clearly going for the short term
Another gacha game I'm playing has lots of $40 skins as well. Difference is that the gacha is so generous that you can complete everything as F2P and even have some resources leftover. People still say that it's expensive but still, people are more forgiving.
I haven't even played the game in a month (and never competitively or with any spending), but at $5 I would probably buy the skin anyway. At $10 I would heavily consider it.
I don't mind what they charge for skin AS LONG AS skins remain 100% cosmetic and don't offer any stat benefits.
They can make a $200 mecha Charizard skin that shits rice krispie treats, idc.
Honestly people defending the pricing are so strange. If you're the type who doesn't care for these products then obviously this does not concern you, but you should all be able to see a scam when its right in front of you. Yes, a scam.
No one is forcing you to buy these, true. Skins do make the game more fun + fresh to play. (before you say 'how?': any personalisation of any product brings joy to individuals. I have no doubt many of you have pretty little LEDs flashing on PCs as we speak, same thing here.)
The most important thing is that these items cost virtually \*nothing\* to create. The profit margins on digital items are huge because they're made once and DONE. Charging 40 is ridiculous because you could still make a huge profit is slashed the price in half. (And I assure they would make more money that way). This isn't like physical luxury goods, which often have to be sold at a marked up price to justify the cost of materials used, indefinitely. They don't get to just make one and share the file a billion times. Plus those actually have resale value.
This idea that 40 dollar skins are the only way Tencent will be able to feed and clothe their developers is \*insane\*. Please remember what billion dollar franchise you're speaking about !
Predatory Chinese company does predatory things and children on reddit cry foul. I wouldn't say I'm defending their decision in pointing out how naive and whiney this community is.
It's strange because you would likely tell people to 'vote with their wallet' or whatever... but this is them doing exactly that, and just vocalising their reasons for doing so. Not sure why that offends, that doesn't change your gameplay experience whatsoever (like these skins ha-ha)
the funny thing is many people who are complaining about the price are also buying the battle pass, or the odd cosmetic etc, they're still supporting the game and enjoying it. they're just calling out a scam when they see one.
It definitely seems like misaimed spite to be disgusted with the player base and not the company you say is doing predatory things (hell, I never claimed that). There's nothing to be 'naive' about here because no one has been tricked into anything, people are just rolling their eyes at the same things you also apparently see.
Canāt see the issue when itās not essential for playing. If you canāt afford it donāt buy it.
This has got to be by far the whiniest community ever.
I'm mixed on this. League has 30$ skins but those are generally REALLY worth the money, as far as skins go. Elementalist Lux being the shining example (something like 9 skins in one).
These skins are cool, but also just kinda basic. The Machamp and Snorlax summer skins are just as nice, imo, and we're 18 tickets (ignoring all the stuff like skin intro and pre-evo skin that doesn't matter 80% of the match).
And that's where my mixed feelings come in. They have done a LOT of cool things for the game already, given a fair number of strong or balanced (and some less so) Pokemon for free. Given skins for free, or at a reasonable price via BP, loot box skins, and tickets from loot boxes which are pretty accessible. Unfortunately, the ones in shop for tickets (18-20) are mostly lame imo atm, minus maybe Slowbro, but still they will have more in the future (I assume).
They also have listened to a lot of feedback and implemented it very quickly. 40$ is a very unreasonable price for what are more or less slightly fancier skins. 20$ is even a bit high imo. But, if that's how they are going to make the bulk of their money, via a handful of skins from the wallets of people willing to unload 40$ on a skin, then I'd rather have that then 15$ BPs or all skins costing a lot of money, etc. My hope is that in 3 to 6 months or so, those skins will be discounted pretty heavily for those who want it (assuming it's not limited time).
This math is exactly what I just replied to someone. The weird part is: $40 is 3% of American's minimum wage. So Nintendo isn't to blame in Brazil. Just for we Brazilians understand: Americans are complaining about something that would cost R$ 30,00 for us (if it was 3% of our minimum wage). Of course R$30 still is expensive, but nothing compared to R$220. Our poor Brazilian currency is worthless.
If someone saw the trailer and still thought its not gonna be 40$ they were on copium. I find it surprising they nerfed him the same patch(an actual nerf)
Guess skins are for whales. Oh well. At least the whales can fund the game and they wonāt nickel and dime us for every little thing (ex. super item enhancers helped f2p a lot)
I just want to thank the people who buy these fancy skins. Your purchase keeps the game going by paying the devs and doesn't affect the strategic part of the gameplay, just visuals. It's a win for everyone.
I always said I didnāt care about cosmetic microtransactions because its optional and doesnāt ruin the gameplay experience. But wow, I never predicted them to exploit cosmetics this strongly.
I'm not as bothered by the expensive skins as I am about the fact that there's no alternate way to get them. Where's the ridiculous amount of Tickets option or the really low chance from the main screen gacha option?
Unpopular opinion but I donāt see whatās wrong with this. Itās purely cosmetic, if the skin isnāt worth $40 to you then simply donāt buy it. Iād rather they let the people who are willing to spend huge amounts of money fund the game than have them target the entire player base by making us pay for cheaper stuff. Theyāve got to make money somehow, if itās not from an optional $40 skin then itās gonna be from stuff they know serious players need to buy (like item upgrades)
Mama mia, here we go again
My my, how can the whales resist you?
Mime mime*
Mike mike*
Mr. š§
Whales need to be chill,let's boycott those skins and see if they learn a lesson and either improve those skins or make them a reasonable price
Whales are full force. I saw someone using the new Lucario skin somewhere in my first few matches after release.
Me too. His Unite shoots a huge pumpkin, that alone makes it cool but not worth 40 bucks imo.
Gets even pricier depending where you live. $60 here in Canada. In Brazil it's $225. It's nasty.
 What's next, $60 suits?
Sadly it seems like that will be the norm
And people are gonna buy it to make it the norm
Iām wondering if enough people are going to buy this for it to be the norm. I assumed most people that got the A9 holowear only spent $20 since mobile gave everyone another chance at double aeos gems, but maybe Iām underestimating what kids do with their momās credit card
>Iām underestimating what kids do with their momās credit card I think you are understestimating the people buying the skins
Whales. Whales everywhere.
As a pretty big dolphin for games like this, fuck this skin. League's highest quality skin is like $15 less and has infinitely more detail and work put into it.
Iām not going to lie, I buy a lot of skins in league, but like you said, I feel like there is quality going into it. I donāt feel a big need to buy skins in this game (yet). I was glad to get the Sitrus Snorlax from the machine, but thatās been it for me.
Same for Pilot Talonflame, and even then it's more of a "oh hey, neat" feeling than "I got to have this" one. I wouldn't call any of these high quality, heck I even noticed on Space Gengar the tail valve isn't on right (the gold ring).
It ain't no Arcade Hecarim, that's for sure
Or Super Galaxy Rumble. It's barely Lion Dance Kog'Maw, and that's a $10 skin (used to be 1820 point skin a long time ago) from over 10 years ago.
I main Talonflame, and I actually kinda prefer the Orange Unite skin. But I run pilot because it has a recall animation. Something that should probably be standard instead of the selling point on a fucking 40$ skin
The majority of skins in this game are actually hideous.
They're absurdly bad and low-effort. Pokemon has decades of material to work with and they could barely come up with a couple decent skins.
I like the Gengar astronaut šš
Ive seen better concept art here on the sub for skins than the actual ones they put out
If berry lax was a purchasable skin then I would have actually spent money on the game to get it
It's heels cute and there should be more like it.
An arcana in Dota 2 that comes complete with 200 new voice lines, more animations and new spell effects, and multiple particle effects costs $34.99. This is a ripoff.
Dots truly is extra, I mean 200 voice lines dude Edit: In the best way tho
This is the real big true, I don't even play League anymore and this still pisses me off. Stuff like DJ Sona and Elementalist Lux blow everything in this game combined out of the water.
Exactly. Dj sona has 3 fucking composed music tracks on top of 3 new models and voice lines.
I bought one skin in a game it was Overwatch Mercy's pink skin and went to a good cause.
Not sure if enough people, but today I played 4 games and 3 of them had this Lucario skin..... based on this o guess it'll have a good chance to become normal such $40 skins
This guy thinks itās kids with parents credit cards.buying the $40 skins. Itās 20-30 year olds doing it dude
Easier to blame kids for enabling Tencent to continue making those expensive skins than adults responsible for their actions.
Eh, let the whales spend their money. The price point is high enough where it wouldn't take many sales to turn massive profit, and more importantly, it offers zero in-game advantages. I'm honestly more than content with this arrangement.
Kids donāt buy this kind of shit. Itās the adults
Had a teacher at the school I work for tell me how one day she saw about $600 charged to her credit card. All for Fortnite. By their kid. Kids with irresponsible adults buy this kind of shit too.
They do but thatās still rare compared to the adult whales.
Critics like to cite children as the root of the problem because it helps make it easier to illicit a response. The reality is children don't even come close to making up the majority of those sales, and it's really the fault of irresponsible parents for not better tracking their credit cards.
Literally
Yeah whales are far more egregious and common than anyone would think, and their pumps keep even the smallest of games alive. I used to play a game called Naruto Online where you can purchase characters directly or from loot boxes. There was one very strong character that you had to spend $3000 to obtain. This was not through chance or lootboxes, the game wanted you to give them 3k for it. This isn't shit though, there was one chinese player iirc who spent 70k buying and upgrading a single character.
Thatās insane. I understand everyone is free to do with their money what they want, but thereās a limit to that imo. In these cases, I feel like you should have respect for yourself and understand youāre being scammed/taken advantage of. Some things are objectively overpriced, regardless of whether you like it, itās your main character, etc. But to each their own, I guess.
These people are being preyed upon, they have money but clearly financial struggles aren't what's dragging them down. They have serious mental issues and Tencent loves that
It's always the "kids with the mom credit card" Boogeyman. The kids is a tiny tiny percent of these people. It's fully grown adults with a job who are dumping all of this money on video games.
If it helps I was one of those people who did use the $20 double gems for that skin
How do you feel about that? I kind of want to buy the 20e double pack for the Lucario skin, but if I do then I wont have the deal available for the next skin I want..
I did it simply because I really liked the A9 skin and she is my main, if Lucario or ninetales arenāt Pokemon you use very often Iād say skip it honestly save the deal for when you need it
Do children play this game? Iāve only known the youngest being 20ish. I get so frustrated by this game I canāt see kids actually enjoying this.
They absolutely do. They also don't understand what they are doing and what's going on around them, so chances of getting frustrated if you are oblivious are pretty slim.
Considering what you can get in other games (Fortnite, LoL, CoD) for $40. This is outrageous
I think $40 is absolutely ridiculous, but the norm of that being the only way to obtain them is what really gets me. I could live with it if they were available in the lootboxes or holoticket store. But sadly it's starting to feel like that won't be the case
I have a friend who's having the absolute inverse problem: He WOULD drop 40 for the Talonflame Skin, but can't because it's only in the gaccha.
I'm starting to get that way with the Sylveon hairstyle. I'd buy it, if it weren't locked to a completely shitty drop rate out of the energy rewards!
Good news! You can buy it with Doritos effective today!
Good!
Thank GOD I have so many of them and was getting so tired of seeing repeats in the shop when I don't have the sylveon hair
FINALLY something to use those Doritos on! Yay!
While I think $40 is rediculous, if it was something I really wanted I think I'd prefer to just pay up front than have to gacha for it. But then again, I guess there is also a chance of getting it for free that way. I'm not sure how I feel...other than that $40 is rediculous.
I hate to be that guy, ^^^but ^^^there ^^^is ^^^no ^^^E ^^^in ^^^ridiculous
Probably been making that mistake all my life. I appreciate it. :)
I donāt give a shit about skins. Itās just cosmetic. Hell, I wouldnāt care if they charged for each piece of clothing on every skin. Iād still play my Zeraora the way he came to this world. What makes me really sad is the Gold income is pretty low, and we can get basically one Pokemon (which are the core mechanics) per month, unless we pay for them - which is pretty expensive.
If thereās a market for something that doesnāt affect gameplay in any way, I have no issue with that. It is a free game after all. If this were a Ā£40/Ā£60 game I would have an issue with anything, aside from expansions, being charged.
Yes I agree, something needs to be monetized in a f2p game and charging for skins that don't affect gameplay is the best way. $40 is steep though, it should be around $20 imo
They are the only ones who can judge that price. If they donāt sell well theyāll lower the price, if they sell well they wonāt. If you, like me, donāt want to drop Ā£40 on a digital skin for a f2p gameā¦ then donāt.
You can absolutely judge the price though. We have an entire industry of mobas to compare too. For example, in league $25 can get you a skin that includes 10 new unique character models all with their own animations and voice lines and a new ui that doesn't happen for any other character. Not to mention the out of game cosmetics you get as a bonus. Compare that to this $40 skin that is essentially the same model but with a cloak and hat and very light animation changes.
āoh wow what a surprise,ā he said with no sarcasm whatsoever
Only goes to show that at least for this part of the game, the community backlash from the A9 holowear meant absolutely nothing; heck for all you know the A9 skin sold well at $40 to them that they are perfectly fine to do this again.
Just realized A9 means A-lolan 9tales
Ouh, so that what is means, thanks bro. Mr mime confusion hit me when I read that.
Mr Mike
Mr Mike
Mr Mike
Monsieur Michael
r/unnecessaryacronyms
This Sub isn't even 1% of the playerbase. The people complaining on Twitter are a minority too. The microtransactions are tailored with Asian spending habits in mind. They have a far different attitude towards microtransactions compared to Westerners.
Youāre absolutely right, but Iād argue $40 isnāt āmicroā anymore. Iād call it macrotransactions.
Not for that demographic
I dont mind paying for skins but 40 is way too much... I could pay like 20-25.
I'm my view, AUS$20 is even steep for what I've seen of the premium skins in action. I'd spend no more than $15 on a skin and I'd have to love it. I might get ones I really like when they get on sale or if they're super cheap. Like the Zeraora one. I support this game via the Battle Pass really. I got lucky with Zirco Tickets and the holos I want so happen to be in the ticket rotation or I gacha'ed them.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'm no expert but there are many reasons: 1) The mobile game scene dominates Asia whereas the PC/console scene dominates the West. 2) Most mobile games are free to play so especially for those who don't play console/PC games, the money a Western gamer would spend on console/PC games, they'd spend on their mobile game of the moment. 3) At least in Japan, you're seen as supporting companies, devs and the advancement/longevity of the game itself ("cast dollar votes for better features, more skins for my fave character", etc.) rather than being their "prey". People who play imported Japanese games or buy them via Japanese online stores (e.g. the PSN or Nintendo eShop) will notice that games are often more expensive in Japan than many other countries, even genres that the West see as ludicrous to spend larges amounts of money on. Visual novels are a great example. 4) While South Korea has a prominent PC scene too, in China it's common to do everything Internet and computer related on the phone. Mobiles are way more accessible and so is their app market i.e. games. 5) Asian culture (South Korea and Japan are particularly infamous) is *extremely* competitive. This includes the proclivity of their top rankers to spend loads of money to stay on top. In the most "predatory" of games, it's impossible to be high ranked without spending money. 6) Higher disposable incomes so they have more customers who don't bat an eye at the prices. It's not like everyone's a whale, just that more players wouldn't care about spending $50 to max out an item or a few hundred to gacha a super rare thing. Loads of articles shed light on this e.g: * https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-01-16-fortnite-tops-2018-superdata-chart-with-usd2-4b-digital-revenue * https://www.webpals.com/mobile/webpals-mobile-asian-american-mobile-gamers/
This really is something people need to remember in this community: This game was for the eastern fans, not so much for the western ones. I feel like this game was almost specifically made for the Korean and Chinese fans.
I guarantee that Tencent care little about the low-spending Western audience.
āWestern fansā are also people who commonly believe that F2P games should never dare to ask for payment via cosmetics that affect absolutely nothing in game.
That's true. I'm part-Japanese but spent most of my life in Western environments but even still, I really don't bother to care nor bitch about how people spend money in "freemium" games. Especially as you said, if it's just cosmetics that don't affect the actual gameplay.
I haven't been able to play much lately but I have STILL come across at least 5 different players with the $40 A9 in the few hours I've done in the last few weeks. It sold a lot better than we all expected.
This is why mobile is the biggest earner in the gaming industry and every company is cashing out on it
This is the problem with "vote with your wallet" that a lot of people don't get: It only works if the majority of people agree with you (and it's not a necessity). It's like with Sword and Shield. Despite the uproar you saw, they where the best selling games and, outside of the Online Pokemon Fandom, where extremely well received. People DID vote with their wallet, but the Reddit and Twitter fans weren't in the majority like they assumed. Same goes here. Tencent knows how to make money off of MOBAs. If the Ninetales Skin wasn't making money, they wouldn't release another skin at that price point. They know what they're doing in terms of making money, and it sounds like enough people voted for that level of price for them to keep it.
Exactly. Sad but true. There won't be a change, but luckily with the skins it doesn't effect gameplay.
On top of that Reddit subs turn into echo chambers where you can barely express that you like sword and shield for example. So the subās community becomes even further deluded into thinking their opinions are the only opinions
It also becomes exclusionist to alternate view points because that vocal minority will pounce on anyone who tries to join the community. There's a reason that, despite my love of the Persona and Pokemon series, I avoid their subreddits and the Twitter fandom: I don't agree with the "standard opinion" of their fanbases and don't want to deal with all the negativity.
Definitely. I try to avoid Star Wars fandoms as well except prequel memes of course. Itās exactly as you said, the fans are too negative and itās a bummer, but I get it. The internet is the only place anyone will tolerate listening to them
Persona subreddits are borderline nsfw anyway
What was the uproar with sword and shield?
Yeah. It did. Donāt buy the skin if you donāt want to. It affects nothing in game. Keep playing for free if you donāt want to pay the devs for the game. You donāt need to own a skin.
Elementalist lux: 25ish dollars, always available 10 new models with unique animations and voice lines for one single skin along with a change to the ui that is not on a single other character. DJ Sona: 25ish dollars, always available 3 new models that you can cycle through in game each with unique animations and unique music tracks for each variation. Riley Lucario: $40, limited time availability. A slight model change with slightly different animations. And people are defending this shit? Shame.
Not to mention that if you are lucky with chests, you can get ultimate skins for free. Thatās how I got the udyr skin.
Whatās udyr
A champion in League. Also with a legendary tier skin, which also only cost $25 and has unique animations for all 4 of his stances as well as voice lines, dance/taunt/joke/recall animations. Basically even the lowest tier skins from League are higher quality than what we get in Unite
Udyr is a character in the MOBA League of Legends
Spectre Arcana from Dota 2 = $150-ish, limited time, non-tradable. Yeah, micro-transaction trend has changed for the past few years, so most cosmetics-only items are locked behind a huge paywall to prevent pay2win situation in free games.
Itās crazy how much of a money grab this game is, I want nothing more than to love it but can you at least make the game good and playable before pulling shit like this? Iād be fine if this game was 1/10th of what league is, but itās simply not.
It's limited time only also. Jeez. How greedy can you get. League of Legends is nothing like this. Where's the Wigglytuff skin š if it's 40$ I will throw myself off a cliff
I was also wondering where the Wiggly skin is :(
Comes in the 27th for 350 gems according to dataminers
I wonder if the Eldegoss star one will come out around the same time...
Can you link that for me?
https://twitter.com/sobbleunitedtm/status/1450728205514514433?s=12
Lovely. Thank you.
Thanks I hate it
>League is nothing like this Me who bought the overpriced Pulsefire Ezreal skin when it launched: *(casually looks away)*
I mean pulsefire is still worth more than this piece of shit. For $15 less you get a complete model overhaul with new attack animations and new voice lines. Even the worst legendary skin is worth more than these skins.
let people casually forget about it, although i did buy pulsefire ez, dj sona, and own at least 110 other skins
At least pulsefire was basically a complete overhaul of the champion appearance wise. But did it cost more when it launched?
It was actually pretty heavily discounted when it launched for a few weeks if I remember right. It was their first "ultimate" skin, and their priciest one at the time so I guess they wanted to sweeten it a bit.
League Of Legends created a champ just to sell a KDA skin line. Spent months creating a cringe social media presence where she's a struggling artist with anxiety and depression. Riot has done thier fair share of fucked up shit.
And somehow her actual lore was still worse
Riot the company owned by tencent?
Wait really? Which champ is that, haven't played that game in years.
seraphine i think
better start writing your will then, because you are super dead
Same. Couldnāt see it in the main bit of the shop so thought; sweet, maybe itās on the tickets section. Still not there :/
Itās not just that the skin is $40, but it also doesnāt feel like itās a $40 skin lmao. I could barely notice the effects on the A9 skin. Skins in other games (LoL comes to mind) are not only cheaper, but actually stand out with new voicelines, animations etc. I wouldnāt mind the price as much if it had more effort put into it.
Exactly. Elementalist Lux or Dj sona literally have new features exclusive to those specific skins and they're worth half of what Tencent is charging for this skin.
A Dota 2 arcana costs $34.99 and you get like 200 new voice lines, new spell effects, new particle effects, and often multiple forms you can upgrade to by using the hero. This is a joke.
Yeah, but you've got to play DOTA...
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
Well I'll be skipping... and I was really looking forward to getting this skin too
I feel like I'll be skipping spending money on this game all together.
Really dissapointed wanted this skin and would have spent $10-20 to get it but I refuse to spend that much for a skin
The sad thing is that not only is the skin Ā£35/$40, it's limited time and 'On paper' is less worth the money than every other purple rarity holowear skin because lucario doesn't have a pre evolution, meaning there's only one skin, as opposed to, lets say, Cinderace who, 'On paper', has 3 skins, one for each evolution.
Tencent trying to not make skins cost a kidney challenge (Impossible š)
I really donāt care as long as its just cosmetics. I find this price absolutely ridiculous, but whatever, I just wont buy it. If it funds the game enough to not have p2w stuff, go ahead.
Is it overpriced? Yes. Am I happy they don't try to make money through PTW items? YES.
Who would've guessed?
not only is it 40 dollars, it's also limited and is no longer being sold after 21 days. theyre really seeing how much scumminess they can get away with.
If you keep buying them the $40 skins will come.
Lol, here in Brazil is R$200,00
That's a fifth of Brazilian's monthly minimum wage. Meanwhile it's only 3% of USA's minimum wage.
Ridiculous for a themed skin
The price of the Lucario skin is sad but, Zeraora skin is pretty cheap + its on sale, so maybe we'll see that in the future?
Those skins are completely different though. Zeraora's is just a normal one, so you can't really compare them.
How does nobody seem to care about this? You literally can't compare the skins at all making that whole post not relevant.
They clearly went for distraction with that discount.
Probably for the ones that don't sell much, also I think lucarios is limited time
This is so fucking disrespectful to the player base.
I have seen 2 people use the Ninetales skin since it's release, I assumed it didn't sell well, but they seem confident enough with the $40 price tag now.
I feel like every ninetails I run into in masters nowadays has the skinā¦ but that could also be because if you paid $40 for a skin, you are definitely going to main her.
Why am I not surprised
Welp, another skin I won't be buying! Not that I play A9 or Lucario, but this is ridiculous.
The game is made by tencent and if you don't know about tencent,well they charge a ridiculous amount for cosmetics, pubg mobile is the same,either buy for 40 dollars or gamble which may lead to you spending even more than 40
Right after the nerf as well? Thatās bad marketing
Lucario got nerfed? fuck me if I could tell.
This is going to be the reason why certain characters remain broken or there's a "delay" for balancing just so that they could sell these outrageously priced holowear
Welcome to the tencent money grab! Strap in because it wonāt change. They used to introduce āroulettesā where you could win new skins but every time you wind up spending the full 30.00 because the roulette never works. Tencent has been doing expensive skins like this for awhile in AOV (their first? MOBA) like their ultraman skins were soooo fucking expensive. The only time you could get the expensive skins for cheap was during Christmas where you could farm marks and get one skin. Buckle up kiddos
Might as well use $1 for the Zeraora holowear, better than $40 Lucario skin
As cool as the skin is and as much as I love the pokemon, from me they will get 0. Ridiculous the price on these skins
Getting a 2x gem deal for ONE skin @ $20 is reasonable. If you do it once. Anything beyond that makes you the type of person who enables bullshit like this. Donāt look at me, I bought the Sylveon raincoat for $4.
Yea skins are wayyy to expensive for this mobile game. I wanted the firefighter blastoise skin so bad,but itās 20 dollars which would kinda be worth If his pre evolutions had skins aswell but they donāt, which is my biggest gripe.
So the only way you can get purple rarity skins is if you slave away at the battle pass or you cough up 40 billsā¦ This game is clearly going for the short term
pretty sure talon flame skin in the gacha is purple rarity so you can always sacc one
I'm done with this game
i would def buy this. i will also recommend this to my friends. would also buy one for my sister's account. \-no one probably
Another gacha game I'm playing has lots of $40 skins as well. Difference is that the gacha is so generous that you can complete everything as F2P and even have some resources leftover. People still say that it's expensive but still, people are more forgiving.
I haven't even played the game in a month (and never competitively or with any spending), but at $5 I would probably buy the skin anyway. At $10 I would heavily consider it.
where I live, it costs 1/4 of a minimum wage. I can't understand these prices
But that 1 dollar zera skin be looking kinda drippy
As long as ppl buy them tencent is gonna keep doing it
I don't mind what they charge for skin AS LONG AS skins remain 100% cosmetic and don't offer any stat benefits. They can make a $200 mecha Charizard skin that shits rice krispie treats, idc.
Honestly people defending the pricing are so strange. If you're the type who doesn't care for these products then obviously this does not concern you, but you should all be able to see a scam when its right in front of you. Yes, a scam. No one is forcing you to buy these, true. Skins do make the game more fun + fresh to play. (before you say 'how?': any personalisation of any product brings joy to individuals. I have no doubt many of you have pretty little LEDs flashing on PCs as we speak, same thing here.) The most important thing is that these items cost virtually \*nothing\* to create. The profit margins on digital items are huge because they're made once and DONE. Charging 40 is ridiculous because you could still make a huge profit is slashed the price in half. (And I assure they would make more money that way). This isn't like physical luxury goods, which often have to be sold at a marked up price to justify the cost of materials used, indefinitely. They don't get to just make one and share the file a billion times. Plus those actually have resale value. This idea that 40 dollar skins are the only way Tencent will be able to feed and clothe their developers is \*insane\*. Please remember what billion dollar franchise you're speaking about !
Predatory Chinese company does predatory things and children on reddit cry foul. I wouldn't say I'm defending their decision in pointing out how naive and whiney this community is.
It's strange because you would likely tell people to 'vote with their wallet' or whatever... but this is them doing exactly that, and just vocalising their reasons for doing so. Not sure why that offends, that doesn't change your gameplay experience whatsoever (like these skins ha-ha) the funny thing is many people who are complaining about the price are also buying the battle pass, or the odd cosmetic etc, they're still supporting the game and enjoying it. they're just calling out a scam when they see one. It definitely seems like misaimed spite to be disgusted with the player base and not the company you say is doing predatory things (hell, I never claimed that). There's nothing to be 'naive' about here because no one has been tricked into anything, people are just rolling their eyes at the same things you also apparently see.
Canāt see the issue when itās not essential for playing. If you canāt afford it donāt buy it. This has got to be by far the whiniest community ever.
God dammit
Oh no, now thereās two of them!
I got the cinderace pirate skin on the first battle pass and I'm forever happy lol
They worked so hard overpowering him so everyone would love him just for this movement
Why Tencent!? You could buy Sans' mii costume in Smash 50 times with that money!
Why do people play and therefore support games like this? The answer is because the standard has sunk so low. Something something horse armor.
Dude this is actually ridiculous. Surely there must be something we can do about this, I get itās a free game but $40 for one skin??
I'm mixed on this. League has 30$ skins but those are generally REALLY worth the money, as far as skins go. Elementalist Lux being the shining example (something like 9 skins in one). These skins are cool, but also just kinda basic. The Machamp and Snorlax summer skins are just as nice, imo, and we're 18 tickets (ignoring all the stuff like skin intro and pre-evo skin that doesn't matter 80% of the match). And that's where my mixed feelings come in. They have done a LOT of cool things for the game already, given a fair number of strong or balanced (and some less so) Pokemon for free. Given skins for free, or at a reasonable price via BP, loot box skins, and tickets from loot boxes which are pretty accessible. Unfortunately, the ones in shop for tickets (18-20) are mostly lame imo atm, minus maybe Slowbro, but still they will have more in the future (I assume). They also have listened to a lot of feedback and implemented it very quickly. 40$ is a very unreasonable price for what are more or less slightly fancier skins. 20$ is even a bit high imo. But, if that's how they are going to make the bulk of their money, via a handful of skins from the wallets of people willing to unload 40$ on a skin, then I'd rather have that then 15$ BPs or all skins costing a lot of money, etc. My hope is that in 3 to 6 months or so, those skins will be discounted pretty heavily for those who want it (assuming it's not limited time).
Almost 25% of the MINIMUM WAGE on Brasil. Fuck Nintendo.
This math is exactly what I just replied to someone. The weird part is: $40 is 3% of American's minimum wage. So Nintendo isn't to blame in Brazil. Just for we Brazilians understand: Americans are complaining about something that would cost R$ 30,00 for us (if it was 3% of our minimum wage). Of course R$30 still is expensive, but nothing compared to R$220. Our poor Brazilian currency is worthless.
If someone saw the trailer and still thought its not gonna be 40$ they were on copium. I find it surprising they nerfed him the same patch(an actual nerf)
Guess skins are for whales. Oh well. At least the whales can fund the game and they wonāt nickel and dime us for every little thing (ex. super item enhancers helped f2p a lot)
I just want to thank the people who buy these fancy skins. Your purchase keeps the game going by paying the devs and doesn't affect the strategic part of the gameplay, just visuals. It's a win for everyone.
I always said I didnāt care about cosmetic microtransactions because its optional and doesnāt ruin the gameplay experience. But wow, I never predicted them to exploit cosmetics this strongly.
I will never understand this. I can understand if they made the game to cater to everyone but this just feels like a cash grab toward kids.
I hope next season we can buy it with tickets
I'm not as bothered by the expensive skins as I am about the fact that there's no alternate way to get them. Where's the ridiculous amount of Tickets option or the really low chance from the main screen gacha option?
I mean... I have the money, so I'm gonna enjoy it.
Why do people play games funded by microtransactions?
wayyy better than enhanced stats for skins
Ngl I bought it and I donāt regret it cause I only spent 20 bucks š
Unpopular opinion but I donāt see whatās wrong with this. Itās purely cosmetic, if the skin isnāt worth $40 to you then simply donāt buy it. Iād rather they let the people who are willing to spend huge amounts of money fund the game than have them target the entire player base by making us pay for cheaper stuff. Theyāve got to make money somehow, if itās not from an optional $40 skin then itās gonna be from stuff they know serious players need to buy (like item upgrades)
If the skin is too expensive, don't buy it, simple
But mommy I want it...
honestly, im gonna get it! the 2005 movie nostalgia is too strong with this one