Pokemon Go players claim price hikes are driving them away from the game

Some Pokemon Go players believe that price increases are dissuading them from spending money in the store and in some cases, driving them away from the game entirely.

Pretty much every free-to-play game has some sort of plan in place to earn revenue, some games sell cosmetics to players, and others offer in-game advantages.

Pokemon Go falls into the latter camp, offering players incubators to hatch more eggs at a time or simply speed up the egg-hatching progress, which requires the player to walk a certain amount of kilometers.

There are also paid in-game events, in which the player buys a ticker for a special string of missions offering rewards and usually a chance to catch a rare Pokemon.

But players are reporting that as years go by, the items in the Pokemon Go shop get more and more expensive and there are fewer and fewer incentives to buy them.

The latest price hike happened when Niantic almost doubled the price of remote raid passed in April of 2023, a decision which left many fans angry.

Pokemon Go fans think that the in-game prices are “jacked”

Reddit user Xbzfunjumper shared his story about the game in a May 7 post, detailing why after seven years he is “giving up” on Pokemon Go. The user stated price increases out of the blue contributed to his decision.

“Boxes are stupidly expensive now. Not long ago the 480 coins one had three super incubators in them, so you could afford them every week or two and enjoy hatching eggs. I’d even throw in a Euro or two because I really enjoyed playing and wanted those extra incubators,” shared Xbzfunjumper.

Others quickly threw their two cents into the discussion, many of them also underlining how price hikes affected their relationship with the game.

Niantic has won, I’m giving up for now
by u/xbzfunjumper in pokemongo

“The way the event passes have gone from ₽5 [Russian ruble] to ₽15 really got me. Especially with the game losing players left & right. Nothing new, the same recycled updates. The prices are jacked,” stated one user.

“The prices killed it for me more than anything, and the remote debacle was just one part of it. I want to enjoy the game, but it’s harder to play and more expensive. Making it effectively far less rewarding as a whole,” agrees another player who quit the game due to price hikes.

Pokemon Go finds itself in a bit of a tough spot recently, as more and more complaints pile on. Just earlier this year Pokemon Go players flamed a new Trainee Box that was dubbed to be the “worst [box] so far.”