Since first releasing at the end of August, Pokémon Masters has had a pretty successful time - in terms of downloads and revenue, at least. The game enjoyed the strongest launch month for any mobile Pokémon game since Pokémon GO and players spent $26 million on the app in its first week alone, but things aren't all as cheery as they might seem.
Some players have been left unhappy with the overall experience, with bugs, a lack of content, and unpopular design decisions all being listed as common issues for fans. The game's producer, Yu Sasaki, has shared a lengthy blog post on the game's website to address these concerns and to offer an apology.
"We're disappointed we did not meet the expectations of our community, and for this, we sincerely apologize", it reads. "It's our intention that this does not happen again. Hearing these opinions from fellow Trainers has deepened our sense of commitment to deliver a game we can all be proud of. We are very appreciative of all the feedback - both critical and positive".
Sasaki goes on to explain that the goal is to "create an experience like the fans witnessed in that first animated trailer", and lists a number of areas which the development team plan to work on. The current areas of focus are the game's lack of content, lack of appealing rewards, difficulty/design, and poor usability, and while some of these will take time to address, players can expect to receive more story events and a revised reward system in the near future.
If you're interested in reading the full post, you can do so here.
Have you been playing Pokémon Masters? How have you found the app? Share your thoughts with us below.
[source pokemonmasters-game.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 23
A very mature and humble response from producer Yu Sasaki, especially in an age when the popular response to criticism in the entertainment industry is "Shut up, you entitled man-babies!"
I actually really like Pokemon Masters. It is the best, and simultaneously the worst Gatcha style game ever. Best because you can literally do everything without spending a single penny because the game provides you everything you need to beat, level up and power up completely for free and you can get it quickly. There are no timers, you don't need gems to play again after you played 5 matches. You can play the game all day and never hit a pay wall. Worst because of the same reason, from a business point of view. Players don't need to spend any money so you just have to hope they do.
I don't see what people are complaining about. Sure, its a mobile game, and once Pokemon Sword and Shield come out I will play that instead, but I'm having good ol' simple fun with this on my phone.
The game lost me after only a couple sessions. Rather play Pokemon Go on mobile or a real Pokemon game on console.
I haven't bothered downloading Pokemon Masters but it sounds like a similar case to Pokemon Go: a buggy game that lacks in content at launch and fails to live up to its initial trailer, until future updates add in all the features that people wanted.
The disappointment is that this is a cheap mobile game. Make more $60 retail games please. And you know, actually put effort into them.
Not surprised some players people left the game, I sure did it too.
The presentation and characters are top notch, but for the rest is a grinding, boring, yet expansive mobile game.
Still what probably pushed people away may have been the events. They kept pushing them out, even one on top of the other, each of them with their unique set of limited resources to grind.
They really really wanted people to play and made sure the game gave you the feeling you had to play a lot everyday, but when you play a lot a fully grinding experience with the cool content constantly teased, yet paywalled... honestly you just quickly get tired of the game and move on, at least that's how it went for me.
@Trikeboy People are complaining because we never asked for a mobile game.
The game we got is greedy with some elements designed to frustrate you and get you to spend cash (having stuff you can only get with premium currency you bought with money and making it so you have to get lucky and pull duplicates to power up trainers. As well as locking trainers you may want behind loot boxes)
The gameplay isn't too terrible but it's pretty repetitive and offers barely any challange. Autoplay can handle most fights well enough that you don't even really have to play. Sure, you don't have to use it, but the fact that it's there shows that they know some parts of their game are grindy and boring.
All in all, it's just a watered down and more greedy Pokémon game.
I feel like we're going to be hearing this again from pokemon soon
Will we get an apology Mario Kart Tour prices?
I thought he was going to apologize about never making a version that was playable on 32bit phones and so many other phones out there where the game wasn't available.
If it was bad and buggy on their very limited phone set I can only imagine how loud the negativity would have been if everyone who wanted it got to play it. Guess it's for the best.
@TheLightSpirit You are aware there are new Pokemon games coming in little over a month, right?
@Kalmaro "People are complaining because we never asked for a mobile game."
Hands up who asked for a game where you control a goose. I forgot that game developers only make games people ask for.
For a game that has such a terrible pay wall, they sure as heck throw a lot of free stuff at you. You can get every trainer completely free. If you are autoplaying the game no wonder you aren't enjoying it. The only thing locked behind payable currency is the exact same thing you get behind in game currency. 300 free gems or 100 paid gems. The story throws gems at you just for talking to a trainer. Sure, you can pay to get more gems but the game throws enough at you that you don't need to buy any.
@StephanDLW Nintendo don't make Pokemon games and had nothing to do with Masters. Also, mobile gaming is actually extremely popular in their home market. Not making mobile games is stupid at this point.
I played in non-stop when it launched, but it was easy to have nearly all pokemon collected fairly fast, and to finish the content. There wasn't much left to do after about 2 weeks. No reason to keep playing.
They should rather apologize for not releasing this in The Netherlands and Belgium.
I mean, if lootbox regulations really are the problem, then why did they release Rumble Rush and Mario Kart Tour in all its lootbox glory. There's no excuse!
This game is an exception to the mobile game rule as it was never intended to be a mobile game. When the producer pitched the game, he wanted it to be a mainline game which featured every Pokemon Master shown in the series. They liked the idea, and decided to make a game that had the Pokemon Masters be the primary focus. And then they decided to make it a mobile title rather than a mainline game. So even though it became a mobile title, the producer still has passion for his idea, and no doubt he legitimately feels bad that people we're a little disapointed by it.
@Trikeboy That is false, there are certain bonuses that you can only get with paid currency.
And the difference between this game and the goose game is that we already know what we wanted, a main line Pokémon game. The goose game no one asked for because it didn't even exist yet for us to say if we'd be interested in it or not.
Here's what we will focus on fixing: Everything.
@Doofenshmirtz
I honestly don't think so; sure some promotional tactics have been a bit odd, but Sw&Sh are shaping up rather nicely. I think more people are heading in that direction too.
@Kalmaro "we already know what we wanted, a main line Pokémon game" Pokemon Sword and Shield were announced BEFORE Pokemon Masters so I don't understand this.
@TheLightSpirit "Mobile gaming will never interest me "
Ok, you heard him developers, only make games for TheLightSpirit. Just because other people are choosing other ways to play, only cater to this one person and screw the rest of the world.
@Trikeboy The fact that it was announced after doesn't change the point though. People wanted main-line games. The spinoff, not so much. It s an even BIGGER deal now since there's a lot of concern over sword and shield being unpolished while focus appears to have been put on Masters.
I think I'd like the game more if it could actually run on either my 2 year old phone...or my month old phone. @_@ Seriously, the game can't be THAT taxing on the hardware...
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