Pokémon GO might not necessarily be an average mobile game, but there are still certain aspects of it that encourage users to exchange real-world money for in-game currency. There are also a number of gacha style elements.
To make life a little easier for trainers, Niantic has announced it's started testing a new feature with a "limited number" of players - allowing them to see what Pokémon might hatch from the eggs in their inventory. In other words, you'll now have at least some idea of what you might receive from a certain egg.
"Trainers, we're excited to share that we're starting testing where a limited number of Trainers will be able to see which Pokémon may hatch from Eggs in their Inventory!"
Niantic's support account on Twitter goes onto explain how trainers in this test are able to "tap an Egg" and it then shows a list of possible pocket monsters that might hatch from it, along with their rarity level. Unfortunately, it won't show if the Pokémon will be Shiny.
Here's a glimpse, courtesy of our friends over at Eurogamer. As noted by the same website, "no probabilities" are listed and there's "no suggestion of how much rarer one level is than another", so it's up to the game's community to work out the rest.
This update follows on from a request from the game's player base last August - calling for Niantic to disclose the game's loot box odds, stating how it had been a problem for years.
So, what do you think? Is this enough? Or do you think the developer of Pokémon GO needs to do more? Comment below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 27
It’s certainly a step in the right direction, I distinctly remember people complaining about Deino being impossible to hatch when it was made available alongside its Shiny form in eggs during an event a while back.
I think people on The Silph Road (and other PoGo data collecting sites like it) will use this new feature to help calculate the Pokemon ratios for each type of egg and update ‘em whenever the hatch pool changes.
I don't really care. I just want a way to delete eggs we don't want. I keep trying to get 2km and 10km eggs, but my inventory is always drowned in mostly useless 5km eggs I can't get rid of. THAT is the part of the system I hate the most.
I think we need a better eggsplanation from Niantic.
NINJA APPROVED
The damn app doesn't even work on my phone anymore. Updates were supposed to improve the software, remember?
I used it a bit upon its launch and again to evolve Meltan (got me a nice Level 1 Melmetal) but when I last updated, it just crashes (and the crashes were ridiculously frequent anyway). Mind you, my phone's a little old now, but so is this damned app.
I'm just tired of being stick with bad eggs that take forever to hatch.
You basically have to get an auto walker just to handle eggs in a timely manner if you can't walk around constantly.
Wait, this game is still relevant? Huh.
@SeantheDon29 it never hasn't, its made millions of $ if not billions, a lot was made in 2020.
should of been a thing eons ago.
What’s to test....
‘Trainers, we’re excited to share with you from now on the amount we’re actually ripping you off’
@SeantheDon29 most spending in 2020 out of all the years it was out. Due to pandemic and remote raiding.
I hate F2P but this is not a major issue with PoGo because we always get one incubator at all times.
Now remote raid passes? Those are too expensive and too limited and normally have to be bought with the very limited in-game currency or that currency can be bought with real world money.
Literally nothing about the game is akin to loot boxes or gacha.
@SeantheDon29 What an original comment.
Not good enough. There needs to be full disclosure what the odds are.
After the "Dragon Week" bonuses last year where they teased "If you're lucky, you might hatch a Gible!" and made the odds unfairly low.
https://thesilphroad.com/science/quick-discovery/deino-reviewing-dragon-week-hatches
It should not be upon the community to discover what the odds are during time-limited events.
@SeantheDon29 Unless something serious happens, I Don't think this game is going to be irrelevant for at least 5 to 10 years time.
I even still play it every now & again.
I like this function I am able to see what I am missing from an egg's hatching pool.
If only you could delete eggs -3-
I still can't believe after all this time there isn't a way to delete eggs that are unwanted. If you have everything that is currently available in the 2km eggs, you should be able to delete them rather than waste time hatching them.
@ALinkttPresent Eggs you can open VERY slowly, one by one with miserable chances at desirable and/or shiny Pokémon or you buy lots incubators/keys to open up to 12 at the same time at a dramatically increased speed but with the same terrible odds (and not even a pity pull mechanic)?
Sounds like loot boxes to me.
Are people really spending money on incubators? It’s the most pointless thing, eggs are just an extra random encounter with a guaranteed catch you get for walking a set amount of kilometres. They’re not loot boxes, there’s zero pressure to spend any money on them (or anything in PoGo).
And it’s no more a random surprise that you could have (but have zero need too) spent money to get quicker/increased chances on than a Team Rocket encounter or the 7 day quest reward. I see one of those grunts I might buy some balls and potions before diving in and then I get an Oddish. I doubt anyone would say it was a loot box but it’s the same entirely optional spending as hatching an Egg.
Is this actually considered a loot box? You don’t buy eggs in the game do you? Unless I missed something, I’m a very casual POGO player.
@JayronAuron My wife and I have been saying the same thing.
@OFFICIALMichi
It doesn't fit the strict definition because you receive the eggs for free, and they will hatch over time instead of the contents being awarded immediately.
But where it's similar is that you don't know what the contents are until they hatch, and some of the contents are coveted and can be very rare, prompting people to open as many as they can until they get a desired result; whatever the expense.
Here, it can be expense because you are encouraged to buy incubators to find out what's inside the egg quickly, by allowing you to hatch up to 9 at once instead of only 1 at a time. This allows you to receive more eggs to keep trying, too.
If anything, it's worse because there's attached waiting times compared to lootboxes that have instant gratification, or crates that you might open with keys that were earned or bought.
@RupeeClock I would say the attached 'waiting' time is actually what makes it distinctly better and friendlier than a loot box system. It removes that temptation of instant gratification, it doesn't matter if you put money in, you still have to play the game just as you would without putting money in. And whilst doing that you're just as likely to find something rarer or more valuable to you than the thing inside the egg anyway.
If there was an insta-hatch item that could only be acquired with real money (which no item in the PoGo shop is bar the tickets for the real world events, in game currency can be earned quite easily through standard play), and super desirable things like shiny or legendary Pokemon were restricted to eggs then I'd say yeah that's a loot box. Not currently though.
@Ogbert
Unfortunately in practice that isn't what happens.
A number of Pokémon are exclusive to eggs, or considerably more common in eggs than in the wild.
Outside of events dragons are usually impossible to find in the wild, making you rely on egg hatches.
Players will all have different goals when they play the game, they may be more attached to the collecting aspect than the battling aspect for example.
The result of this is you have players who are desperate to hatch something that is missing from their collection, or multiple of them in order to obtain the necessary candies to evolve them or even trade them for "lucky" status.
It becomes a dangling carrot scenario, you chase the carrot without knowing that if you can get it, or not at all.
Again this all falls back on that simple fact that Niantic need to be transparent about what the egg contents may be and what the likelyhood is. A vague "1 egg" or "5 egg" rating doesn't tell you anything, and from a pool of "rare hatches" the thing that you actually want could be the least likely out of the rest of the pool.
For all you know it could be a pool of "1% or lower" chance and the important thing has a 0.01% chance.
@RupeeClock I mean that's never been the reality for me and I've played since launch. Nor have any of my friends who play, or used to play, felt that way about eggs. Sure that's anecdotal, but let's be honest, both sides are here.
Baby Pokémon are limited to eggs but really not uncommon, and sometimes you have events to make one Pokémon more common in an egg and sometimes that's a rarer Pokémon sure. But really that's it. And as I mentioned you can buy as many incubators as you like but you still have to walk around to hatch them, you get no instant gratification from spending the money, plus you have to visit Pokéstops to get eggs. All that walking to get and hatch 1 Pokémon from an egg you'll likely encounter 50 in the wild.
Also if people are desperately buying incubators trying to hatch an egg in the hopes of getting a rarer Pokémon, how is telling them up front "This one might have a rare Pokémon you want" going to discourage that? Or even "these ones don't have one you want" because you can't discard them, you still have to hatch them and surely you'll be wanting to get them out the way quicker to make room for new eggs with a chance on one you want? If anything it's making that elusive monster even more tantalising.
It can be spun both ways but ultimately the game doesn't ever pressure you into buying anything, you don't need to buy anything and the things you can buy can be bought with currency easily earned through standard play. It's nothing like a Loot box system where unique items that can't be got any other way are slowly earned over time or for money, unlocked immediately. However you do it, however much you buy, you still have to play the game just as you would without the money to hatch the eggs. The incubators are essentially a boost to egg hatching, like how the incense is a boost to wild encounter rates. Ae people up in arms that the incense doesn't tell them what Pokémon it might make appear when used? No. Do people want the 7 day task streak reward to tell them what Pokemon might appear at the end of it in case they spend money on items to complete the tasks quicker? No. But they're the same thing. A random encounter you get as the result of using an item and playing the game.
@RupeeClock If you feel obssesed to get every damn pokemon in the game you will have a really frustating time. Yeah, I know people have diferent goals, but freemium games like this can be way too expensive if you want everything fast. Eventualy, you will get every pokemon for free, just need to be patient.
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