To say Pokémon GO has been a financial success for all parties involved would be something of an understatement. Since launching back in 2016 it's done pretty well for itself, with 2019 being the game's most successful year yet. In-game player spending pulled in nearly $900 million for makers Niantic last year, stimulated through various new updates and features coming throughout the year. It seems that the developer is keen to experiment further with new ways to monetise the hit game and its latest strategy is through a paid exclusive Special Research story tied into the game's monthly Community Days.
According to Pokémon.com, the March Community Day event will introduce an extra exclusive Research story for the price of $1 (or the equivalent in your local coinage). Here's the relevant passage in full:
This month, there's also a new twist to the Community Day experience. A Community Day–exclusive Special Research story titled Investigating Illusions can be unlocked in your game for $1 USD (or the equivalent in your local currency). Complete it to earn 13,000 Stardust, a Poffin, a Rocket Radar, and other rewards. Stay tuned for when tickets go live!
The normal Community Days features (a featured Pokémon that appears in much greater numbers over a three-hour period and can be evolved to obtain an exclusive move) remain unchanged, so this is in addition to the usual three-hour lures and 3x Catch XP bonuses.
Niantic has been experimenting recently with other features such as weekly Spotlight Hours and Mystery Bonus Hours, but now it's looking to tap into the hugely popular Community Day crowd. It remains to be seen whether this is a new monthly feature or a one-off experiment, but the company only needs a tiny percentage of the hordes we see roaming the streets and parks near where we live on a monthly basis to throw down a dollar to see a very tidy return indeed.
Will you be partaking of this exclusive Special Research story during the next Pokémon GO Community Day? Let us know your thoughts below.
[source pokemon.com]
Comments 13
not bad for a quid tbh
If you're only gonna charge a dollar, might as well not charge at all
Small one-off purchases to enhance a community day are a fine idea, honestly. I have no objections to small things like this.
Better than the price of admission for their Regigigas special research, I refused it.
I was about to bust into this comment section like the Kool Aid man to cry foul, but honestly the rewards aren't game changing by any means, and I've got at least a dollars worth book Google Play credits to dip into.
Okay fine. If I'm doing community day anyway, I might as well. Not a bad strategy to make a million dollars in a single day.
I'm not opposed to paying for special research, but the "other rewards" doesn't include some kind of special Pokemon encounter, then I don't really care.
@OrangeSoda
Niantic often omit details like this, probably to give you something to look forward to, but if money is involved people want to know what to expect.
Thankfully, reports of what the event entails will spread online quickly thanks to them running in New Zealand first.
I can agree with this. The past deals have been very off putting for sure. Something like this once a week prior to event day would be a nice domino effect.
Let's make this money Nintendo
I'm confused by the 'Community Day exclusive' wording. Does that mean you can only access the research tasks during the Community Day? If so that's pretty awful considering you're paying for it. Otherwise, it doesn't seem too bad for £1 as long as the tasks and rewards are interesting.
Microtransactions upon microtransactions. I wonder how long Nintendo can resist before they start putting these monetization schemes into their console games?
Judging from fan reception, they could totally get away with it so by all means go for it Nintendo. People vote with their wallets.
@mesome713 man, you gotta understand who makes what. Nintendo doesn’t make this, Miyamoto doesn’t make Pokemon either as you said in a previous article.
It's only a dollar... but if Niantic continues in this pattern of charging for events, they will be driving me away from the game.
@ToonStuff ... They have 67 million players. There's a big gulf between getting 67 million people to pay $1 and $0...
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