What’s Wrong with Niantic’s Pricing Lately?

Something is going on at Niantic HQ. For the last few months, they have been doing weird experiments with things in the shop. We’ve had new boxes come and leave the store, with weird contents in all their boxes.

Originally, boxes in Pokemon GO tended to do several things. One would be dedicated to hatching eggs, the other gives gear for raids. Then there would be a smaller box with a mixture of both. The smaller box would cost around 400 coins, which was often an alright deal. However, we’ve recently seen some very weird boxes in the shop, including some genuinely good offers. A season back, we had a 300 coin box that contained 3 remote raid passes and an incubator, which is a pretty alright deal (saving yourself 150 coins). But prices have spiraled from there.

One of the biggest complaints about these boxes is how they seem to over-value the cost of Pokeballs. You can get Pokeballs quite freely, either from Pokestops, gyms or from gifts. Yet they keep on being put in boxes, with the idea that a stack of (generally 30) Pokeballs is equal in price to a raid pass or an incubator. Niantic also tried putting berries in these boxes, but for the money they were asking, it was just far too much. Berries are just as common as Pokeballs, and you can get plenty of berries from the same places.

But what was more random was the price of all these boxes. Some of them went way over 2000 coins, which is a lot even for big boxes, while the smaller, cheaper boxes remained at around 300-500 coins. These boxes and prices went all over the place.

Only now have we managed to settle down on some normal boxes. Are they good boxes? They’re much better than the random boxes we had before. The Trainee box is alright, and the Expert box seems alright too. But it feels like the calm before a storm.

Community Days are also particularly odd. The Community Day boxes come with one elite TM and some other items, but they don’t feel fun to purchase. So, as well as a massively expensive box, Niantic now sell mini ticketed quests for whatever Pokemon is in the Community Day. A great idea, but you need to spend real money to get it. I suppose at least you can buy the Community Day box for coins, but it does have a really steep price.

And now they have a purchasable quest, for Keldeo, the little horse guy with a sword instead of just a pointy unicorn horn. This has happened before, with Galarian Mr Mime and Regigigas’s first appearances in Pokemon GO, but the community didn’t seem to be a fan. Regigigas did sell, Mr Mime also sold. They both sold well enough that Niantic are doing another quest line for Keldeo.

The sad thing though is that Niantic will still get away with these absurd price choices. Many people, mostly casual players and high-spenders, are all buying this stuff, because they don’t know better. Or, alternatively, they are perfectly fine with random price changes, ticketed quests and all these price shenanigans, and we’re just the vocal minority…