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Toadthemushroom · Jul 11, 2016

What is interesting about Pokémon Go is how its monetisation has panned out as far distribution per player goes. According to Macquarie Securities (via Reuters), the majority of its revenue, which has been enough to get it a top grossing position, has come from a large pool of users each spending a little, rather than a small proportion of users "whales" spending a lot:

Reuters/Macquarie said:
It has more (monetisation) than we expected; as users build their Pokémon inventory, spending money becomes needed to store, train, hatch and battle," Macquarie Securities said in a note to clients, adding that purchases so far in Australia were not being driven by big spenders but by a large number of users.

This is significant because not only does it mean the game could be potentially bringing in money in a more ethical way, but it echoes what Iwata wanted to achieve with mobile as far as monetisation went.

Satoru Iwata said:
My understanding of how to succeed in the Japanese market now is to find a limited number of generous consumers who are willing to spend a lot and analyze what encourages them to spend. However, if we did that, I don't think that we would be able to entertain hundreds of millions of consumers all around the world or to produce large and long-lasting achievements."

He then went on to mention how Nintendo's goal is to produce mobile games which monetise "wide and small", rather than "narrow and large", in effect pulling in a small amount of revenue from as many players as possible, rather than thousands off a tiny proportion of super-engaged players or "whales". And so far, Pokémon Go has achieved just that.

It's early days, and the analysis comes from Australian player data, but it's very promising nonetheless. And I wonder if a similar monetisation model wouldn't work in something like a theoretical Splatoon Go. Turf tagging war IRL, with Pokéstop-like areas to top up on ink? And will Nintendo and Niantic be able to keep this up in the long run? What do you think?

Edit: PocketGamer.biz have done an in-depth look at how the game's monetisation works at a mechanics-level for anyone who wants to read it: http://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-iap-inspector/63496/how-does-pokemon-go-monetize/

Resilient · Jul 11, 2016

i bought 100 pokeballs for $8

not even mad

kami_sama · Jul 11, 2016

I can see why. A lure or an incense are onlt ~1$ and they last 30 minutes.
It's not a bad investment if you go outside with some friends to play the game.

Zolo · Jul 11, 2016

Resilient said:
i bought 100 pokeballs for $8

not even mad

It'd be nice if more companies adopted reasonable monetization like this.

T.O.P · Jul 11, 2016

I spent 30$ in poke coins

First time in my life i spent money on a f2p mobile game

Bought a shitload of lures / lucky eggs for tonight, hunting pokemon with friends is really great

Sakujou · Jul 11, 2016

most people are not willing to pay for a game 5 dollars, but for some inventory stuff they splurge tons of money.

a friend told me he spend over 500 in hearthstone.

WTF

right now, i would be glad if pokemon simple would work on my smartphone.

the hype is real.

Metalic Sand · Jul 11, 2016

T.O.P said:
I spent 30$ in poke coins

First time in my life i spent money on a f2p mobile game

Bought a shitload of lures / lucky eggs for tonight, hunting pokemon with friends is really great

Same with me. I've never been into F2P mobile games or even mobile games in general but i've spent $20 in poke coins. No regrets.

Red · Jul 11, 2016

I've spent $30 on pokéballs. That's it for me though. There are no stops nearby and unless I find a relatively close pokéstop where I can restock I'm going to call it quits. Can't make hour long trips every day to pick up a handful of pokéballs.

Wollan · Jul 11, 2016

I feel its pretty well balanced as it is now. Definitely not a 'pay to win' situation.
And I ultimately don't feel bad giving this game some of my cash once server-troubles/1hp bug is fixed.

WhiteRabbitEXE · Jul 11, 2016

It seems like it would be hard to be a whale, unless you REALLY want to have 1,000 Poké Balls or something. Or you want to be in a literally constant state of Incense use.

But yeah, it's a really great setup. Everything is cheap enough that I wouldn't feel bad spending the money, and yet I don't remotely feel like I have to either. Which honestly makes me more likely to spend money than whale-driven games, which just instantly turn me off with their setups. Like, I could see myself indulging on Incense or a couple Incubators every rare once in a while. If it had been something like only giving you 2 Poké Balls a day and then you HAVE to pay up, or if you could just buy Stardust and Candy, then I would have just dropped it.

oni-link · Jul 11, 2016

I hope this success and strategy allows Nintendo to keep this type of thing out of their console games, as it would be a shame if they went all in on microtransactions

Forerunner · Jul 11, 2016

I've been buying incense because there is nothing where I live. So if I'm at home and want to catch stuff I have to use them.

Hoo-doo · Jul 11, 2016

This is the first mobile game i'm likely to spend actual money on.

The lure system is amazing and I can just activate a lure and haul in Pokemon from my living room. I have more pokeballs I could ever need.

wrowa · Jul 11, 2016

I didn't spend money on it so far, but I'm thinking about buying some Lure Modules. The way these attract not only Pokemon but people is really cool.

Red said:
I've spent $30 on pokéballs. That's it for me though. There are no stops nearby and unless I find a relatively close pokéstop where I can restock I'm going to call it quits. Can't make hour long trips every day to pick up a handful of pokéballs.

And I can reach half a dozen Pokestops with a 5 minute walk. I really hope Niantic tries to improve the situation in rural areas sooner rather than later.

RockmanBN · Jul 11, 2016

oni-link said:
I hope this success and strategy allows Nintendo to keep this type of thing out of their console games, as it would be a shame if they went all in on microtransactions

Yeah I hope it doesn't. I found the game to be bland. If the games were to be heading in that direction, then my time with the series would be over.

KingBroly · Jul 11, 2016

T.O.P said:
I spent 30$ in poke coins

First time in my life i spent money on a f2p mobile game

Bought a shitload of lures / lucky eggs for tonight, hunting pokemon with friends is really great

I'm tempted as well

but man, they really need to allow you to sync your Pokemon Trainer Club account with Google/iOS accounts.

SinCityAssassin · Jul 11, 2016

They should make Pokestop on interesting rural non-landmarks.

"The Tree That Looks Like A Clown."

"Rockface the Rock Face"

"Town Outhouse."

Koyuga · Jul 11, 2016

Considering dropping $10 so I can upgrade my item storage lol. Hate seeing that (your bag is full) message at pokestops.

chillybright · Jul 11, 2016

Sakujou said:
most people are not willing to pay for a game 5 dollars, but for some inventory stuff they splurge tons of money.

a friend told me he spend over 500 in hearthstone.

WTF

right now, i would be glad if pokemon simple would work on my smartphone.

the hype is real.

Why is that surprising? Comparing to MtG, $500 in Hearthstone can get you a much better collection. Yeah it's digital, but it can provide hours and hours of gameplay that dwarfs most $5 games.

Stereogatari · Jul 11, 2016

Despite all the hype, at its core it's sadly a micro-transaction fest like the rest of them

I know, I know. It pays for the app being free.

cw_sasuke · Jul 11, 2016

Havent played it yet...but does the game have an option to whale yourself to owning all 150 Pokemon without leaving the house ? Probably a turn off for whales since the playing field is more even in GO if this isnt possible.

faridmon · Jul 11, 2016

Sakujou said:
most people are not willing to pay for a game 5 dollars, but for some inventory stuff they splurge tons of money.

a friend told me he spend over 500 in hearthstone.

WTF

right now, i would be glad if pokemon simple would work on my smartphone.

the hype is real.

WTF?

Should I be worried about my brother who plays that game constantly?

Neiteio · Jul 11, 2016

Speaking of whales, I hope Wailord is to scale when they add Gen 3, he'll take up an entire city block

oni-link · Jul 11, 2016

RockmanBN said:
Yeah I hope it doesn't. I found the game to be bland. If the games were to be heading in that direction, then my time with the series would be over.

I'm fine with them doing this for mobile, just I see two scenarios if this becomes a huge a sustained success and brings in more money than their console and handhelds

1) They adopt the principals of mobile for their console output, and that negatively impacts game design

2) They use the boost in income from mobile to preserve the type of games and game design the company has been known for over the last 3 decades

Maybe the first scenario seems unlikely, but they are a for profit company, and soon most of the people who worked for Nintendo since the early days of the NES will be gone, and if mobile is making millions each day and their handheld and console markets continue to shrink, it could happen

kurahador · Jul 11, 2016

faridmon said:
WTF?

Should I be worried about my brother who plays that game constantly?

Considering how Hearthstone method of in-game currency grind is by winning over other players...yes.

starpiercer · Jul 11, 2016

PokeGAF, you guys and gals spent most of your life wanting to be Pokémon Trainers. This is the only way so cough up some dough, please.

Nintendo

Mihael Mello Keehl · Jul 11, 2016

First free game I spent a dollar on.. at first I was like...

"Not like this Mello"

After I bought 20 pokeballs 7 times I was like..

"shittt.. 99 cent? Ok why not.. I need more stardust!"

starpiercer · Jul 11, 2016

Neiteio said:
Speaking of whales, I hope Wailord is to scale when they add Gen 3, he'll take up an entire city block

I remember seeing someone calling a person a Wailord in college. Good times will last forever.

Dr Funfrock · Jul 11, 2016

It's not out in my country yet, but it probably will be.

The OP of the 165 page thread didn't say, but is it possible to play this normally and fully, without resorting to microtransactions?

Neiteio · Jul 11, 2016

Dr Funfrock said:
It's not out in my country yet, but it probably will be.

The OP of the 165 page thread didn't say, but is it possible to play this normally and fully, without resorting to microtransactions?

Of course. You'll still encounter all of the Pokemon and be able to catch them with items you collect for free. You can just make it easier to catch Pokemon, or make more Pokemon appear more often, by buying certain items. Some items even attract Pokemon for everyone playing, so you can buy it and everyone benefits.

SinCityAssassin · Jul 11, 2016

Dr Funfrock said:
It's not out in my country yet, but it probably will be.

The OP of the 165 page thread didn't say, but is it possible to play this normally and fully, without resorting to microtransactions?

Technically yes, you can make Pokecoins by defeating gyms, and one assumes by defeating other trainers once they patch in that feature.

But other than that, cash is the only way Pokecoins.

Ban Puncher · Jul 11, 2016

itprintsmoney.jif

WhiteRabbitEXE · Jul 11, 2016

Dr Funfrock said:
It's not out in my country yet, but it probably will be.

The OP of the 165 page thread didn't say, but is it possible to play this normally and fully, without resorting to microtransactions?

Absolutely, though it may be hard in rural areas where Poké Stops are few and far between.

Personally, I've caught 150 Pokémon, have yet to spend a dime, and have never ran out of Poké Balls due to a decent amount of Stops. Any purchases other than Poké Balls are really just for added convenience, and even then you get some of them for free from level ups, and stuff like Lures can be used by everyone in the vicinity, so if there's people in the area you'll often get people cooperating to constantly keep lures in play.

Red · Jul 11, 2016

Dr Funfrock said:
It's not out in my country yet, but it probably will be.

The OP of the 165 page thread didn't say, but is it possible to play this normally and fully, without resorting to microtransactions?

Maybe. Depends on if you have pokéstops (item dispensaries) mapped to nearby locations. You'll probably be fine for the first few levels even without these, but as you reach higher levels and it becomes more difficult to gain experience you might find yourself without other options.

Nightbird · Jul 11, 2016

Spent 4 Bucks so far.
It's going to be a lot more next month

Chessr · Jul 11, 2016

Forerunner said:
I've been buying incense because there is nothing where I live. So if I'm at home and want to catch stuff I have to use them.

I used an incense my self at my house
Guess what. All i got was a pidgey :s

ironmang · Jul 11, 2016

Would rather be able to spend a fixed amount and get the same experience as everybody else. Sucks that it probably wouldn't be such a craze if they did it that way though. Just hate microtransactions that impact gameplay and always have.

Zafir · Jul 11, 2016

That's good. I hope more mobile games follow that idea.

There's so many times where I've considered spending money on a mobile game, and then I look at how much it'll cost and I'm just put off straight away. A good recent example is Avengers Academy, the game has kind of a typical mobile town game style, where you have to wait a while to do anything. I would have accepted that, but it would pop up saying for you to unlock characters - specifically I remember the Hulk and Vision. It was like £20 or something ridiculous to buy enough currency to unlock the Hulk, and just over £10 for Vision.

The other Japanese games are fairly bad for buying as well, since it follows the random model, and without deals you don't get that many rolls for what you buy. Fortunately the Japanese games tend to at least have quite a bit of game play before you have to "wait".

Dr Funfrock · Jul 11, 2016

Thank you all for the replies!

I don't mind spending more time "getting there" than normally, and like WhiteRabbitEXE I'm mainly interested in only collecting them and having fun with that.

For the good of the company Nintendo/Gamefreak really should have done this a lot earlier and had a stronger mobile prescense as well like console and handhelds. Hopefully they're working on a common account/profile-system for all 3?

Possumowner · Jul 11, 2016

I've spent 0 so far,but oh boy is it tempting,lord nos how much the wife has spent

RalchAC · Jul 11, 2016

cw_sasuke said:
Havent played it yet...but does the game have an option to whale yourself to owning all 150 Pokemon without leaving the house ? Probably a turn off for whales since the playing field is more even in GO if this isnt possible.

There are lures that make Pokemon go to the spot you are, and a special kind of lure that you use leave in a PokeStop in order to bring a lot of Pokemon to the area (both for you and other players).

Still, part of the fun is just lurking around, seeing other players and having a reason to wander around places you usually don't.

You get a bunch of those as you level up, but you can buy them too.

Still, even if you use those lures, you are mostly going to get a Pidgeys and Ratatas. Some Pokemon are quite hard to find.

spekkeh · Jul 11, 2016

Good. Fuck whale hunting games. Seriously if Pokemon Go would appear to be whale hunting, I would stop playing it. I still think some things could be priced a bit lower, but it seems to be working okay. Though I'm not sure Nintendo actually had much of a hand in the pricing? Seeing as it's not even connected to MyNintendo, it might just be Niantic setting the pricing?

hirokazu · Jul 11, 2016

I think it's the unintentional consequence of everyone wanting to attract and catch more Pokémon from the get go, rather than something they planned all along. Otherwise, why are there IAPs that cost $150 like all the mobile games that do rely on whales? It's hard to predict player behaviour like that.

SinCityAssassin · Jul 11, 2016

hirokazu said:
Otherwise, why are there IAPs that cost $150 like all the mobile games that do rely on whales? It's hard to predict player behaviour like that.

Because if you go in the seas where whales do exist, you might as well put out that bait even if you're not intent on basing your fishing empire on them. Nintendo as a whole has said before that their mobile games (and by proxy, Pokemon Go) more focus on expanding the IP mindshare while making money and not necessarily on chasing whales.

Forkball · Jul 11, 2016

Can't believe you guys are spending money when you can't even catch Vanillite yet.

hirokazu · Jul 11, 2016

SinCityAssassin said:
Because if you go in the seas where whales do exist, you might as well put out that bait even if you're not intent on basing your fishing empire on them. Nintendo as a whole has said before that their mobile games (and by proxy, Pokemon Go) more focus on expanding the IP while making money and not necessarily on chasing whales.

Not convinced though. Plus as someone mentioned, it looks like Niantic had a lot of freedom in designing the game, so I doubt the IAP options were even devised by Nintendo.

As an aside, Nintendo probably wouldn't have approved releasing the game in its current state if they had as much control over the process as they usually do.

Chaos17 · Jul 11, 2016

Dr Funfrock said:
It's not out in my country yet, but it probably will be.

The OP of the 165 page thread didn't say, but is it possible to play this normally and fully, without resorting to microtransactions?

Yes by taking gyms which will reward you with coins that are needed for the shop.
Or n android only you can install a small app for survey (link in the OP of the OT)

Noisepurge · Jul 11, 2016

Wollan said:
I feel its pretty well balanced as it is now. Definitely not a 'pay to win' situation.

it is pay to win though as with money you can get infinite incense, lures and incubators to grind more candy and take over gyms faster

T.O.P · Jul 11, 2016

Forkball said:
Can't believe you guys are spending money when you can't even catch Vanillite yet.

The hell is a Vanilite

Forerunner · Jul 11, 2016

Chessr said:
I used an incense my self at my house
Guess what. All i got was a pidgey :s

I actually got a lot of different things with it at home even though it says nothing is around. This is what I've got with it so far:

Ponyta
Pinsir
Rhyhorn
Charmander
Eevee
Nidoran (male and female)
Cubone
Abra
A lot of Paras

There was even a Clefable, but I didn't catch it! ;_;

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