Pokémon GO Players Have Apparently Spent $2 Billion To Catch 'Em All

Apparently the key to success for a mobile game is to have an icon of a guy screaming straight at you. Good to know.

I've been playing since release, and have abstained from spending any money until very recently. Spent $3.99 so I could get Incubators to hatch those Alolan eggs for the regional event.

Well, the positive side is that at least they already have a lot of budget to develop more good games.

a question, 3 games in that graph are the same?, I say it, because their icon is exactly almost the same, XD; I know, just kidding

well now I understand why for the first time ever they officially translated an entire Pokémon game other than the TCG specifically for Brazilian Portuguese (even though the official Portuguese channel is still in European Portuguese which makes zero sense for announcements and contradicts the game)

Recently got back into GO since I stopped playing around the first 2 months of it's life. Much improved since then but still has tweaks to be made for sure. I'm very curious where the series will go next. Maybe when everyone has VR sets en masse, the next giant pokemon phenomenon will strike. Hopefully that actually resembles a finished product by launch unlike GO did.

@SakuraHaruka The 2 billion mostly goes to Niantic, the developer. The other share of profit goes to TPC, because of licenses.

I only spend Google Rewards money on Pokémon, since I wouldnt lose it anyway. I think in total, it would be something around 10 euros.

@SakuraHarukaYou're almost right actually lol. The top game and the 4th game are made by the same people lol.

@TossedLlama Only because Youtube is broken lol. Youtube will promote the clickbait, cringy channels that upload 5 videos a day more than they do the channels that put time and effort into their videos and release them weekly.

Pokemon Go is but one app. People spend billions of dollars on micro transactions and DLCs and other game related things every year. Yet other people threw a frakking tantrum at the idea of 20 bucks a year for Nintendo's online.

And well yeah, I am sure a lot of those people fall on into separate groups, I'd bet you my entire monthly salary, that more than half of the people who complained about NSO's cost, have spent more than 20 bucks on loot crates and mobile game micros.

To each their own. You do what you enjoy. Just know, some of us notice these contradictions.

Or they could have waited for either lets go or the new one next year and save themselves money, cause all they would need to do is get pokemon bank and not be a complete noobcakes so they got time on there hands to catch em all a lot cheaper and with far better graphics.If pokemon bank is in the new game next year not sure how it would work cause it lets you transfer pokemon from older games to the new one and the older games are on the 3ds lol.

LOL That's a lot of suckers!

Idiots

@Heavyarms55

Thats because its entirely your choice as to whether you spend money on these games and their IAPs. I have played clash of clans and clash royale a lot and there is 0 requirement to spend money. You can enjoy both games just as much by not spending a penny.

What nintendo have done with their online however is just a [removed] move. Give us super basic but free online for a year and a half and then suddenly start charging for a service that isn't even 1/10 as good as the competition from Sony or MS. Want to play those games you have been playing online for free? Pay us money.

A game is a game. You can choose to buy it or not. An online service that keeps most online games from you as well as cloud saves is poor form. If you want to charge people for a service at least make it vague value for money. Look at what PSN gives you for £35/year. Good games every month, discounts on loads of games, good online, proper chat features etc etc.

I've played Pokémon Go from the start and originally I didn't spend money at all on the in-app purchases. I will say I do buy the occasional raid pass to take part in social events.. like the recent Moltres day though. The game is really fun however.

@bones I'd already caught them all before even starting to play Pokémon GO... it seems from your comment that you really don't understand Pokémon. It's not just "having them all" that makes Pokémon fun, it's how you collect them & Pokémon Go is amazing fun & gets you out meeting people. Also, it appears you think you can transfer Pokémon from Let's Go to Pokémon Go?? You can't.. and even if you could, Let's Go Pikachu is Gen 1 only.

@mctrials23 I completely agree that in-app purchases which you can choose to ignore & paid online, which is mandatory to enjoy the full experience of you gaming are two very different experiences. However, while it certainly feels like a bit of a duck move giving everyone over a year before implementing the paid online, Nintendo do have some mitigating factors - especially being their first paid online anything... plus they were likely worried making the online service paid from the start could both delay the Switches launch & damage it's launch figures.

Quick question, I know that Sony's online is subscription now, but it wasn't originally (had a PS3 for a while). Was that switched when the PS4 launched.. or did they just force PS3 owners to pay for their online 3-4 years into it's life?

@mctrials23 Just a separate comment for this, but having double checked the Playstation Online charge... it's $49.99 a month in the US & £49.99 in the UK. So not only is it more than double the Nintendo Online price, but they don't factor in the exchange rate (should be £38).

Where is your £35/year price from - I'm checking the Playstation Store itself?

@DanteSolablood PS3 is still free to play online, I have 2, they also share game downliads, then they quietly launched the pay to play with the PS4. You do need PS+ for could saves on PS3, or PS4, but I back up all of my PS3 saves on 3 separate old thumb drives I had laying around, 1 for each of my kids and I.

I think the perception is you need PS+ to game online b/c PS4 sold so well, and PS+ gets advertised a lit, but it's the same as Wii U, free online. It was there at launch for PS4 though.

@DanteSolablood

This is coming from using sites like hotukdeals for years. At least 5-6 times a year there is somewhere selling 12 months of PS+ for ~£35. I had a playstation for 2 years and never paid any more than that. Its like buying a sofa. You never pay RRP unless you are a complete idiot.

The problem I have with your explanation that its their "first paid online anything" is that its kind of irrelevant. They are charging us for almost nothing. Cloud saves are something that shouldn't even be a question in 2018. Their VC is simply reused from past console. Their store/VC was 10x better on their last generation console.

I'm not debating that its cheap but what annoys me is that Nintendo are very clearly and cynically working out how to extract the most money from its customers while delivering the bare minimum in return.

They are insanely wealthy and its taken them 18 months to give us cloud saves and a **** VC. They have released a tiny set of first party games that aren't ports and when they do release a port its more expensive than it was originally.

They created a great console and since then they have done the square route of **** all to make it successful. You can thank all the third party developers and indie devs for its success.

I've spent a lot of money on incubators and pokeballs.

@rjejr Thanks for the update, I genuinely wasn't sure as I gave my PS3 to my mum well before the PS4 was announced. I definitely miss Gundam Dynasty Warriors. :,(

@mctrials23 Okay, that's fair.. though that wasn't clear from your original post. I know a lot of friends that are paying less than £5/year for the Nintendo Online Service - you'd likely have picked me up on that if I'd have compared that to PSN without mentioning they're sharing one family plan between 8 accounts (in different countries).

However, you are correct that they're handling things really badly - I wouldn't expect to get the large library of older games that Sony gives out to it's subscribers.. reheated NES games are taking the mickey. Plus there is literally no reason for the VC to be done through an app. Anyone expecting even a half of what you'd get through PSN would be stupid, but yes, we should be getting the basics.

Anyway, I could ramble about the Nintendo Online Service here... but this is a Pokémon Go comment section & I'm a Pokémon Go fan. Let's just leave it that the PSN costs £35/year unless you're stupid & the NOS costs from £4/year depending on how many friends with Switch's you have.

@DanteSolablood I do understand and I was talking about the mobile game where you need to buy more balls to catch them. I have finished a few pokemon games but never even come close to finish probally. I ran out of balls in the mobile game and payed a very small price for some more can't remember how many i got but i only paid about 1 pound.

@bones Well, you don't NEED to buy more balls to catch them... you get Pokéballs for free by spinning Pokéstops that you find quite often while walking around. You only buy more balls if you're too lazy to leave your house for a walk.

I've completed most of the Pokémon Games & have nearly the full Pokédex on Go. I just need to find a few people with regional (continent exclusive) Pokémon to trade with.

I'd love to know how many much of that comes from whales. I've heard it's quite prevalent in the free to play market.

@Mrtoad You made me laugh with the icon of a guy screaming at you. Thanks man.

WOW!
So many idiots with so much money!